Himitsu Himemiya
by Lalaith Quetzalli
Summary: He, Prince of the Layer, she, a high school girl; seem to have nothing in common yet they’re in love. Until the Cheating Queen turns their world upside down. Will a simple girl be able to take up an Angel and fight the evil Queen in the Layer? AUish
1. The Strength of Friendship

Never thought I would be writing for this fandom, even the first time I read the manga and watched the ánime, but then this time around I got hit by this idea like a cannon bullet and then couldn't get it out of my mind. This story is pretty much an AU, the basics remain: Angelic Layer, the tournaments, Icchan as its creator, Shuu as Athena's deus, Oujirou a famous deus, etc. Though one apparentl minimum detail has been changed, and it kinda snowballs from there. Also, this happens when our main characters (all of them) are about seven years older than in cannon).

Hope you'll like this, even with the somewhat radical changes I've made in some things. I happen to be proud of this work of mine. (Considering the story is finished already, and in just four days too!) (Also, that means the updates depend totally on you people leaving reviews, no reviews mean no chapter). Also, because there happens to be so many flashbacks throught the whole fic I'll put those in italics, so you'll know when you're in the present and when you're just being told something that already happened. See ya!

Himitsu Himemiya

_By: Lalaith Quetzalli _

Disclaimer: Don't own Angelic Layer, yadda, yadda…this is kind of an AU though.

_He__, the Prince of the Layer, she, just a high school girl; they seem to have nothing in common yet they're in love. At least until the Cheating Queen turns their world upside down. Will a simple girl be able to take up an Angel and fight the evil Queen in the Layer? Only one way to find out._

**Chapter 1****. The Strength Friendship **

A nineteen year-old woman with clear-blue eyes and thick curls of mahogany hair that came together in a messy knot at the base of her head, with her two fore-bangs hanging free framing her beautiful porcelain face; wearing a halter, knee-length red, white and black dress with black heels and a dark-red cloak covering her from the shoulders down. She was the image of a doll, a perfect little princess, delicate and gorgeous. She was also the miracle rookie in a world-famous game known as Angelic Layer: her name…

"Himemiya-san!" A voice called her.

The newcomer was a young girl, twelve-years old at the most, with piercing violet eyes and midnight-blue hair that fell straight to her waist; wearing a purple two-piece short dress and black boots, she smiled widely at the older girl.

"So, here we are…" She declared.

"Ha-hai." The young woman nodded, and then began pacing. "Oh Kami…what am I doing here? What made me think I had even the slightest chance whatsoever? What…"

"Let me see." The girl raised her fingers one by one. "You're here because it's the only way to make things right; and it was your plan in the first place, not mine. I think it's quite obvious you have more than just a 'slight chance', seeing as you won the undefeated winner of the Regional Tournament. You know, no one has managed that since the Goddess Queen? You are great Himemiya-san, more than great."

"What if I lose now?" It was obvious the older girl was definitely nervous. "I've trained so much but still, this is the first time I actually compete in Angelic Layer…"

"Only because you chose not to do it before. Had you chosen differently I'm quite sure you would have been champion several times over by now."

"You're so optimistic Hatoko-chan…Wish I could be like you."

"You can, you just need to stop being so awfully pessimistic all the time! You got this far, didn't you? And you did it because you're talented, very talented. After all, it's in your blood, Angel princess…"

"Angel princess?" Himemiya seemed puzzled. "Where did that come from?"

"Tamayo-nee-chan, she says it's a fitting title for you, after everything you've gone through, and everything you've done, especially in the last couple of months."

"I think Tamayo-san is too much of a romantic for her own good."

"Maybe, or maybe it's her pregnancy making her thoughts go haywire…" The violet-eyed girl mumbled the last bit under her breath, as if complaining to herself.

"Tamayo-san's pregnant?! Why wasn't I told? I talked to Kotarou-san on the phone a couple of days ago."

"Etto…" Hatoko realized she had said more than she should have. "My nii-san said it may be better if they saved the news until after the finals, so you wouldn't be distracted. It's not been that long since they found out either, only a few days. Gomen, they are planning on telling you the day after tomorrow; have the idea of making a double party, to celebrate Tamayo-nee-chan's pregnancy and your victory at the same time."

"But I haven't won yet! We don't even know if I'm even gonna win."

"You don't know. I'm sure you will. After all, you've already defeated some of the very best this country has to offer: Shibata Maria, Saitou Kaede, Seto Ringo, Tanaka Chitose, Fujisaki Madoka, and many others. You're the greatest prodigy that has gotten into this game since the Prince of the Layer began his career."

"And what about you?"

"Me? I'll always be the Little Goddess, even if I've only managed to reach the finals once, I had the delight to fight the Queen at least once, before she retired from the Layer; even if I lost, I at least got that chance, it's something I'll never forget."

Himemiya took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for what she knew was coming. Hatoko was right, she had already gone through so much, first to qualify for the Tournament, then during the Regional, and the Nationals, and now she was finally in the Finals…Yes, she had gone through so much to get there, she couldn't give up now.

"Let's do this, Hatoko-chan." Himemiya declared with a smile as she pulled the hood of her cloak to cover her head and half her face, as had become usual for her during the Tournament.

"Lets do it." Hatoko agreed, overjoyed by the fact that her friend had recovered her confidence and strong will, she would be needing it.

.---.

"And here we are!" The announcer was calling in a very excited voice. "The semi-finals for this year's Nationals in Angelic Layer! Our competitors are the very best this country has to offer: first, the famous Ice Machine: Jounouchi Sai! Also, the perseverant fighter: Fujisaki Arisu! Another experienced deus who this year seems to be focused on proving herself as the best: Atarashi Kyoko! And finally, our miracle rookie, the undefeated: Himitsu Himemiya! Show them your love people, these four before you are the most talented Deus in Japan, now, who will prove to be the best? We'll know soon. Also, don't forget that, like every year, the winner of this tournament will have a chance to defy our very own Prince of the Layer: Mihara Oujirou!"

As soon as the presentation of the finalists was over each of the deuses, along with their seconds, went to their respective stations.

The first fight was announced almost right away: Jounouchi Sai, with her Angel: Shirahime, against Atarashi Kyoko and her Angel: Queen.

Himemiya turned her back on the platform as soon as the first round was announced, instead choosing to concentrate on some papers she had on her lap.

"You really aren't going to watch the fight?" Hatoko asked as she raised her head from the laptop in which she had been typing.

"What for?" Himemiya asked, without looking up from her own papers. "We both know that, no matter how strong Shirahime and Sai-san may be, there's just no way they're going to win against the Cheating Queens."

Hatoko just shook her head at the title that Himemiya had assigned to the bushy haired deus, it would be bad if it wasn't so right. That deus was cheating to get through the Tournaments, had been doing it since the very first battle, no one seemed to be able to stop her. In fact, that was the very reason why Himemiya and Hatoko were there in the first place:

_***Flashback***_

_Himemiya was standing in the middle of the park, under the rain, her high school uniform as soaked as the rest of her, the long tresses of dark hair hanging heavily down her face, which she held in her hands, she seemed to be crying, though it was hard to tell with the rain._

_Suddenly another person arrived to the park, in the white and blue uniform of the Eriol Junior-High, Hatoko stood under her black umbrella, waiting for the other girl to notice her._

_"Ha…Hatoko-chan?" The blue-eyed girl finally noticed her. "What are you doing here?"_

_"Nii-san told me what happened." Hatoko explained without delay. "That bloody bas…"_

_"Hatoko-chan, language!" Himemiya chastised the younger girl, before sighing and adding in a low voice. "It's not really his fault. His hands are tied."_

_"Only because he hasn't looked for a way to untie them. You can't tell me that, with the power he commands, both as a Deus, the 'Prince of the Layer' and as the younger brother of the Father of Angelic Layer, he can't get off his ass and do something about it!"_

_Himemiya shook her head sadly, choosing to ignore the language Hatoko kept using._

_"If only it were as easy." She finally said in a sad tone. "But it isn't. This isn't just about him, or me or even Atarashi. This is about everything Icchan-san and his team have worked so hard for, the future of Piffle Princess…"_

_"Mate…" Hatoko was shocked as she finally understood. "You mean to tell me Atarashi is blackmailing Mihara Oujirou?!"_

_"Shhh!!! No one's supposed to know."_

_"Why not? Why not telling the police, or whoever what Atarashi is doing and getting this trouble finished already."_

_"I already told you it's not that easy Hatoko-chan. What Atarashi is using to blackmail Oujirou-kun is too delicate and too important."_

_"How much?"_

_"Almost all the records concerning a top-secret project Piffle Princess has been working on for the past five years."_

_"Ok…" Hatoko sighed. "That's big."_

_"Hai. Atarashi has promised Oujirou-kun that if he lets her get her way and win in Angelic Layer this year she'll give him back everything, all the written records, the diagrams, the software, everything."_

_"And where are Ichirou-san and Shuu-dono?"_

_"On a business trip. As a matter of fact, they went to get the final part of the budget for this very project, as well as to register the patent that will help them finally make it official."_

_"And do they know what's going on?"_

_"Iie. That was one of Atarashi's conditions when they negotiated things, no one was must know what's going on."_

_"And yet you know."_

_"Hai…"_

_"There's more, isn't it?"_

_Himemiya decided that sometimes Hatoko was too clever for her own good._

_"What is it? What else is Atarashi demanding in exchange for those things she stole?"_

_Himemiya's answer was so low the younger girl couldn't make out what was being said._

_"Nani? I didn't hear you."_

_"I said she wants Oujirou-kun. He must ask her out during the Finals and keep dating her until she tires of him; during that time she'll be giving him, piece by piece, the things related to the project, if he refuses she'll either destroy everything, or even worse, sell it to the American competition. And before you say it, there's just no way to report the robbery, because no one out of Icchan-san and his team even know this project was under way!"_

_Hatoko growled in frustration, things were defiantly bad, more than bad even, they were between a rock and a hard place. And if she thought it was like that, she didn't even want to know how her friend was feeling. Hatoko had known Himemiya for practically all her life, since her brother Kotarou went to school with her. Hatoko, being a great fan of Angelic Layer since she was four, had received a great surprise when discovering her brother's friend knew someone directly related to those who made it. And yet, perhaps the most surprising part of all was the fact that she didn't play Angelic Layer herself, said she just wasn't interested. At least until all this disaster began._

_"So, what are we gonna do then?" Hatoko asked her friend. "Because I hope that, after all this speech, you're not planning on just stay sitting there and taking all this s…"_

_"Language…" Himemiya repeated, and then took a deep breath. "And I don't know what to do. I mean, I know I should do something, but just don't know what."_

_"Why don't you compete?" Hatoko suggested suddenly. "I mean, you know I will do it, but two are always better than one, that way at least if one of us losses before this is over it'll only be half the chance gone…"_

_"Wait, wait, wait. You can't expect me to compete. I've never battled with an Angel!"_

_"But you do have one, don't you?"_

_"Hai. I do, one of the first to be made, but I already told you, I've never used her to fight. Only to dance and such."_

_"Why not?"_

_Himemiya just shrugged._

_"Well, doesn't matter." Hatoko assured her. "If you can dance with your angel that means you must have a good coordination, it must not be hard for you to fight."_

_It seemed like Himemiya was about to complain again, but in the end decided it was useless. Hatoko was right in that they had to do something, and since Oujirou seem to be having such a hard time, she'll have to do something herself._

_"Alright." She nodded. "We'll do it."_

_"We'll fight, and do our best to stop Atarashi from becoming Champion." Hatoko agreed. "And if in the way we can somehow recover what she stole, all the better."_

_"Hai." The blue-eyed nodded. "I'm so glad to have you with me on this, Hatoko-chan."_

_"It's my pleasure," The younger girl assured her. "I owe you and your family so much, without you, Suzuka and I wouldn't be who we are now. You know you can count on me."_

_"Arigato." Himemiya insisted._

_"Now come on." Hatoko said suddenly. "Lets get you out of this rain before you get sick."_

_***End of Flashback***_

By the time Hatoko had finished reminiscing the battle in the Layer was over, and like the two girls had expected, the winner had been Atarashi.

"You know, I almost feel sorry for Sai-san and Shirahime." Himemiya declared suddenly. "They're such a talented team…if things were the way they're supposed to be, they would have been the ones to win this fight."

"And you would be facing them in the finals." Hatoko pointed out, she giggled. "I know what you mean. I too have a very deep respect for them, they're the ones who defeated me. The reason I'm not giving you a hand like I originally promised…" she sighed sadly.

"Hey, don't be sad." Himemiya told her. "You're still helping me, a lot. I have no idea who I would have chosen for my Second if you hadn't been here."

"Maybe Ryo-san." Hatoko suggested, half-joking, half-serious.

"Iie. Ryo-san is being very helpful in his own way, but I don't think I could trust him the way I trust you." The older girl declared honestly.

"Arigato, Hime-chan." The violet-eyed girl was beaming with happiness.

"The second part of the semi-finals will begin now!" The announcer's voice sounded from the speakers right then.

"Guess that's my cue." Himemiya declared.

Hatoko helped her put the headset on without pushing down her hood, it had become a part of her 'character' it gave her an air of mystery and danger that the fans seemed to love, especially since she had passed through all the battles undefeated. The hardest thus far had been her last battle in the regionals: against Hatoko and Suzuka; in the end it had been a draw, one of the few to ever take place in Angelic Layer, and since it was already normal for two of them to pass to the Nationals, the coordinators of Angelic Layer allowed the draw to remain as such; the other had been in the finals: against Saitou Kaede with her angel Bransher, Himemiya had come so close to loosing that fight…it had been so long since she had seen an Angel go into Hyper Mode she had completely forgotten such a thing was even possible.

.---.

In the Control Room a twenty-four year old man with cerulean eyes and short dark hair with a few bangs half-hiding his eyes, dressed in black slacks, a casual forest-green button-up shirt and black shoes stood before the great monitors from where he had watched the first battle of the semifinals in the National Tournament. A battle where, he knew, the winner hadn't been truly determined by talent, but by cheap tricks; and yet he had done nothing…

Everyone around him kept silent, even those who were experienced enough with Angelic Layer to at least suspect that something fishy was going on, had been going on since the beginning of the official tournaments. And it was that he was Mihara Oujirou, the Prince of the Layer, brother of the one who had created Angelic Layer, champion for the last five years…there was just no way he would allow something as low as cheating to be happening.

Still, one of the people there, a woman in her early thirties, just watched the young man in silence, while pretending to be very concentrated on her own work. She could see the sadness in her young boss's eyes, the grief, and it pained her as well; she only wished she could do more to help.

"I just hope this'll all be over soon…" She whispered to herself.

Meanwhile, Oujirou himself couldn't help but turn to look at the photo in his hand, the one thing he kept with himself at all times, that helped him keep going, doing what he hated with all his heart but knew was necessary if he was to protect what his loved ones had built. It was a picture of a young couple in the park, smiling at each other and almost kissing, surrounded by flowers and the rests of a picnic.

"Onegai…" He whispered to no one in particular, and in a voice so low none of his employees could actually kill him. "Angels, give me the strength to do that which I hate, yet know must be done…" he sighed as one lonely tear fell down his cheek. "And may She some day forgive me for everything…"

.---.

In the stadium, the second battle of the semifinals was being called:

"In the east side Deus: Fujisaki Arisu, Angel: Alice." The announced called. "On the west side Deus: Himitsu Himemiya, Angel: Hikaru…Angel fight!"


	2. The Trials of Two Lovers

**Chapter**** 2. The Trials of Two Lovers **

In the center of the stadium the last battle of the semi-finals had begun, but Oujirou didn't care about it, he believed it didn't make a difference in the end; Atarashi would still cheat her way through the final battle, and then he would have to practically hand her the title of Champion of the Layer. It was one thing to actually loose honorably, he actually had been waiting for such a thing for two years, ever since his brother and the still Queen Goddess had decided he should just battle the winner of the Nationals, so as to give a better opportunity to the rest of the competitors. He was never defeated, not since Athena had yielded the place of Champion to him at least. However, Oujirou had no delusions of grandeur, he knew there were other deuses who were stronger than him, he just hadn't battled them yet. He hoped one day he would, being the absolute champion could be boring. Still, that didn't mean he liked yielding his title to someone he knew didn't deserve it, someone who should have been disqualified long before she even began participating in the official tournament…

As he stood there he could only remember the day everything had gone to hell:

_***Flashback***_

_With a huge grin on his face Oujirou kept going around his apartment, making sure everything looked totally perfect. After dating for five years, and being in love with her for almost seven, he was ready to ask his girlfriend, the love of his life, to marry him. He actually believed it to be long overdue, after all, they had been dating for so long! He'd known since the first year into their relationship that he would never love another girl. Yet he had waited, knowing she was still young, barely fifteen at the time, there were so many things she wanted to do, she wasn't yet ready to enter a commitment that would last the rest of their lives. So he decided to wait, wait until she graduated from high school, until she decided what she wanted of her life; and that time had finally come, she had just finished classes that day, would be beginning her finals the next week, and her graduation would be in a couple of weeks. She had already told him she was planning on being a school-teacher, a dance-teacher since she loved dancing so much and he would be supporting her all the way; he hoped to be able to support her as her husband and not only her boyfriend. He was ready, he hoped she was too._

_He was pondering on which flowers and how many to buy his future-fiancée when suddenly there was a knocking on his door. He went to the door confused, he wasn't expecting anyone, he was going to pick up his girlfriend in an hour, his brother and sister-in-law were on a business-trip, had just left, and weren't expected back in at least two months; and he didn't know anyone else who would be looking for him._

_At the door stood a dark-eyed brunette who had her hair in pigtails, dressed in a tight white-blouse, maroon pencil-skirt, brown jacket, black tights and dark stilettos, her face would probably look pretty if she didn't have so much makeup on, and when she, uninvited, entered his apartment he could see she wasn't really used to wearing such high heels, as she had trouble walking on them._

_"Hello…" he began, between confused and annoyed by the liberties the stranger seemed to be taking. "Who are you?"_

_"Me?" She asked, before continuing in a very sultry and slightly terrifying tone. "I am the one who holds your future, and the future of Piffle Princess, you may call me 'Future Empress of Angelic Layer', my name is Atarashi Kyoko."_

_"Are you on something?" He really couldn't find another explanation for the outrageous words of that girl but that she was high._

_For all answer the woman slammed a thick manila envelope on the table before her._

_Oujirou understood the unspoken words and took the envelope, he immediately began looking through the papers, most were notes of things, though there were some diagrams, and in the end a few pictures showing things on monitors and disks._

_"Where did you get all these from?" Oujirou asked in a low growl. "How?"_

_"Now, now, is that the way to talk to the person who holds the future of you and everything you hold dear in her hands?" She asked in a mocking tone. "Oh, and don't worry about giving those back, after all, they're just copies, and not even of everything I have. I keep all the originals in a very safe place."_

_"So you come here, to show me that somehow you've stolen very important highly-classified material of a project that isn't even official yet?" Oujirou summarized. "What exactly do you expect to achieve with this?"_

_"Oh, it's very simple really, you Mihara Oujirou, and I, are gonna make a deal." She told him in what she probably thought was a seductive tone, when actually it was just scary. "A deal that will 'benefit' both of us in many ways."_

_***End of Flashback***_

And before he knew it, he was neck-deep in the worst situation he could have ever imagined. Though, the worst part of all, he had to admit, wasn't really yielding his title as champion, not even allowing such cheaters to do as they wished with the Angelic Layer Tournament; no, the worse part had been seeing Her face as he had to explain as much as he could to her.

_***Flashback***_

_He had just rang the bell on the house when a voice answered him._

_"I'm coming! I'm coming!" It was Her. "I'm almost ready, why don't you come in and get comfortable? Just give me five minutes."_

_In a different situation Oujirou would have probably chuckled, that was so usual for his girlfriend…but as things were, not even her slightly-clumsy and very cute actions could bring out even the ghost of a smile in him._

_As promised, She was ready five minutes later, dressed in a nice casual dress and flats, her long hair down just like he liked it._

_They left her house and went to a Thai restaurant, it was her favorite food and also the place where they usually went; the people there already knew them, knew what they liked to order, and how important it was for them to have a bit of intimacy while dinning, how they hated the idea to be harassed by the members of the press that seemed to be always looking for some bit of news on the Prince of the Layer._

_As it was, it was really a miracle they hadn't discovered about Her yet. On the other hand, though, they had been really careful, never giving displays of their love in places that were too public, always being observant about who was around them; she wasn't part of Angelic Layer, so that too made things a bit easier. He already had enough of a hard time being a public figure himself, he didn't want to condemn her to the same._

_So they dined together, and she kept smiling at him, the piece of small baby-blue flowers in her hair combined perfectly with her white dress and her blue eyes. And yet, as happy as she was in that moment, she wasn't blind, she could see something was wrong with him, that something was making him very sad, and that made her sad too._

_"Is there something wrong, Oujirou-kun?" She finally asked him as they were finishing._

_For all answer her boyfriend just hid his face in his hands. How was he going to explain him everything that had just happened? How could he make her understand how absolutely wrong things had gone in a matter of minutes? How could he get her to forgive him for what he would be doing in the following months, what he had no choice but to agree to do? And why should she? It's not like it was her fault or anything, why should she have to deal with it all, when it was his fault, his and no one else's? That helped him make his choice:_

_"Nothing's wrong," he assured her. "It's just, I need to talk to you."_

_"Alright." She nodded, and remained there, waiting for him to talk._

_"We've been dating for five years…" he began._

_"And you've made me very happy." She pointed out._

_"I'm glad." He nodded. "I know when we began I told you I understood our age difference might some day cause trouble; and that if at some point you decided you didn't want me, that you'd rather date someone your age, I wouldn't reproach you for that, I would just let you go."_

_"I know." She nodded. "But our ages have never made any difference to me. I still love you."_

_'Oh Kami, please forgive me…' he whispered mentally to himself._

_"But I don't." He declared in a cold tone. "I'm sorry, but I just don't love you anymore."_

_Silence reigned for a few very long, almost eternal, seconds, until finally the reaction came: laughter, the young woman was laughing at him, at what he had just said._

_"Wha…" He couldn't even bring himself to make any question whatsoever._

_"You may be a great actor in the Layer, and all your fans may fall for your little quirks and quotes; but I'm not them. I'm your girlfriend, I've known you for more than ten years, since I was just a child. There's no way you would ever be able to lie to me and get away with it." She deadpanned. "Now tell me why you think you need to break up with me, especially telling me you don't love me anymore, after we've been together for so long." She sighed. "We both know that five years is just five official counts, unofficially we've been together longer than that, at least two more years. Though that would have probably given both of our families a heart attack." She shook her head with half a grin. "Now please tell me what's going on."_

_And so he had told her, still fairly shocked at having been discover so easily, and yet at the same time completely relieved by the fact he had been able to see through him; he told her everything that had happened in the last few hours._

_When the story was over Himemiya seemed to carefully consider everything he had said._

_"So, you're gonna do it." She declared. "You're gonna actually allow this girl to cheat her way through Angelic Layer and in the end hand her your title as champion? And I won't even ask if you're gonna go out with her, that's pretty obvious seeing as you were ready to break up with me already." The last part came out a bit harder than she had planned…_

_"You need to understand, it's not what I want." He tried to explain to her. "It's what I have to do. Ichirou-nii-san and Shuu-nee-san trusted me to keep things in order in their absence. They trusted me to coordinate this year's Angelic Layer tournament. I can't fail them."_

_"If you do as you say you 'have' to do, you will be failing them." Himemiya said simply. "You would be turning a beautiful game and competition into a joke."_

_"But if I don't do that what we've all been working so hard for so many years will be lost, one way or another!"_

_"So it's either dishonoring one work, or destroying another, really not much of a choice."_

_"So you understand…"_

_"That's not what I meant. What I meant was that you aren't looking for alternatives."_

_"What do you think I've been doing ever since that woman left my apartment?! I've looked at the situation from every angle possible, there's just no way."_

_"Oh but there is, and it's pretty simple really. Defeat her in her own game!"_

_"Did you forget the part where she told me I have to yield to her? Even if I were capable of getting through her cheap tricks, and I'm quite sure I am, I either loose to her, or she'll do as she has threatened with all the records and such."_

_Himemiya shook her head, he really didn't understand._

_"Guess this is it then…" she whispered sadly._

_"Wha…" That really surprised him. "What do you mean?"_

_It only got worse when she stood from her seat and made to take her purse and jacket. He called her name, tried to reach for her, but she stayed with her back turned to him._

_"If you really think that's the only way, I won't stop you, but don't believe, even for one minute, that I will help you." She explained. "I won't be a part of this. I won't destroy you."_

_"That's exactly what I'm trying not to do!" He insisted. "I'm trying to say Piffle Princess!"_

_"I'm not talking about the company, or even your family's work, I'm talking about you." She pointed out in a sad tone. "We both know if you go through with this, it will destroy you. I refuse to be a part of that."_

_And before he could say anything else, she was out of the restaurant and, at least for the time being, out of his life._

_*** End of Flashback***_

"You were right my love…" He couldn't help but think to himself as he half-watched the battle taking place. "You were so right…"

No matter how often he told himself that what he was doing was necessary, that there was no other way, he knew that, ever so slowly, he was breaking under the pressure, under the shame of dishonoring what had been his older brother's first work, his greatest achievement; it was thanks to Angelic Layer that the two of them had even been able to finally accept the other as family, and also thanks to it that Ichirou had met the one who would eventually become his wife: the first user of the Angels, known popularly as the Queen Goddess: Shuu.

And he was ruining all that. In his attempts to protect one project of Piffle Princess he was slowly ruining another one. He wonder if his brother would ever forgive him when he found out, because Oujirou knew he would find out as soon as he got back, either someone will notice and tell him, or the young man himself would confess out of guilt; and as afraid as he was for that, he was absolutely terrified of his beloved never forgiving him, she had told him he wouldn't be with him if he destroyed himself, and even then he knew he was doing exactly that. Was there just no way out? If there was, he couldn't see it.

.---.

Himemiya was sitting on the egg seat assigned to her, her eyes fixed on her Angel, clad in a dark-red long robe, with only red boots and gloves visible most of the time, and of course her short pink hair and red eyes. Her angel seemed to be having a hard time keeping steady on the Ice platform that had been chosen for that battle.

"One would think they're trying to get you out of the competition, eh Hime-chan?" Hatoko's voice, heard through the headset, repeated exactly the same thing that had been going through the blue-eyed young woman's mind since the beginning of the first round.

"That would only mean someone's afraid of me." Himemiya pointed out.

"And that would be good, since that's exactly what we're aiming for." Hatoko added.

"Well, not that so much, as the fact that we're here to win." Himemiya corrected.

"We're here to give our own solution for our 'dear Prince's' problems." Hatoko declared.

"You know, this isn't what I had in mind when I talked about defeating her in her own game. I mean, it was, I just never considered being the one doing it."

"Who else then?"

"Well, he is a part of Angelic Layer, isn't he? He could have gotten someone from the company to enter the Tournament under a disguise, using one of the newest models, that should have been able to do the trick."

"I doubt anyone could have been as good as you."

"I have the advantage because no one expected me to be good at this. Not even me I must confess. But I was already familiar with the angels and the way they move."

"And yet you almost didn't do it."

Himemiya just shrugged, giving Hatoko a moment to realize the older girl had never really explained why she had been so dead set against fighting in Angelic Layer, especially when very soon it had become pretty obvious she had great talent for it.

"So, any plan on how to defeat Alice yet?" Hatoko changed the topic.

"I have one." Himemiya admitted. "It's a bit risky, but it's also really the only thing I can think of, and as you can probably see we don't have that much time left."

"True, so I guess you just gotta do whatever it is you'll be doing."

Himemiya didn't answer, just mentally sent her Angel the order for her next attack.

It wasn't easy, the Layer was ice, and despite the fact that both Angels were lightweight and fast, Arisu's had far better balance, there was just one thing Himemiya could think of doing.

"We can't attack on our feet, but one never said we had to attack that way." The blue-eyed talked to herself. "Go now Hikaru!"

And so the pink-haired angel went, and when the speed caused her step to falter, instead of trying to keep herself straight and end up on her face, she moved her body backwards, managing to sweep the other angel's legs from beneath, in a move both so fast and so sudden, there was nothing Arisu could so to stop her angel to being thrown out of the platform.

"Hikaru wins!" The blonde man with the microphone announced with glee. "And our Miracle Rookie does it again! Himitsu Himemiya goes into the finals undefeated!"

The man kept talking, about the record both finalists had, apparently Atarashi had lost one battle, in the first part of the tournament, before the eliminatory rounds; Himemiya herself was completely undefeated; something, she suspected, rubbed the brunette in the wrong way. Still, Himemiya didn't pay that much attention, more concentrated on talking to Hatoko.

"Miracle rookie?" she asked her second. "Couldn't they have thought of a more original nickname in this tournament?"

"Would you perhaps prefer Angel-princess?" Hatoko suggested with an impish grin.

"That's just way too obvious Hatoko-chan." The older girl declared.

"And 'Himitsu Himemiya' isn't?" The violet-eyed girl questioned sarcastically.

"Well, they haven't worked it out thus far, have they? Not even him."

"That may just be because he's too busy worrying about the disaster he unwillingly helped to cause. What do you think he'll do when he find out the truth?"

"Not sure, he'll either cry out in shock, or keep a mask on and pretend he knew it all the time."

"Useless either way." Hatoko said sarcastically. "You've got about an hour long break before the final battle against Atarashi and her Angel, what do you plan on doing?"

"Nothing really." Himemiya admitted. "I'll probably just stay here."

"Why don't you come with us and have some lunch?" Hatoko suggested. "Kotarou-nii-san and Tamayo-nee-san will sure be delighted to see you, offer you their support before you go against the Cheating Queens."

"Alright." Himemiya agreed after considering it for a few moments. "Lets go."

.---.

In the changing rooms Himemiya took off her cloak slowly, satisfied by the fact that, since no one really knew what she looked like, she wouldn't be recognized while she went for some lunch with some of her friends who were there to cheer on her; besides, it was too tiring moving around in the heavy cloak.

She was just about to close the door to her assigned locker, in which she had just left the cloak, when two other girls entered the room. The other two who were assigned it: Jounouchi Sai and her second: Saitou Kaede.

"Himemiya-san?" Kaede asked, apparently surprised at seeing her.

The young woman just nodded silently, no point in denying what was evident, since she still had her hand on the one piece of clothing everyone identified her for; still, she couldn't help but be nervous, wondering what the other deus would say or do next.

"I think I've seen you before." Sai announced suddenly.

Hatoko just turned to look at each of the older girls in turn, panic fully-written in her face, while she kept mentally kicking herself over and over; they were going to discover her best friend before time, and it would be all her fault, after all, she had been the one to insist on going for some lunch.

"You've been in several events of the Angelic Layer, except that back then you weren't a deus." Sai continued. "And they called you…"

"Sai…" Kaede stopped her.

Sai stopped talking, turning to look at her friend, who in turn had her eyes fixed on Hatoko's still panic-filled expression.

"I would rather you not say my name out loud here, Sai-san." The blue-eyed deus finally composed her. "For the time being at least, please call me Himemiya, everyone does."

"What is going on here?" Sai demanded, suspicion lacing every word. "First that other deus wins, when I'm absolutely sure I had gotten the perfect strategy to defeat her. I'm not trying to sound too self-confident, but things shouldn't have gone that way."

"I'm quite sure you're right." Himemiya surprised both girls with her admission. "But I insist that's something that shouldn't be discussed here. Why don't you two join us for some lunch. There I expect all your doubts will be settled."

Sai and Kaede, still confused by the sudden turn of events, agreed almost immediately.

.---.

By the time the explanations were done most of those in the table had already finished their lunches as well; actually, Tamayo was the only one still eating, though she insisted she had to, as she was eating for two, Himemiya thought that was only an excuse for her to eat all her favorites at the same time.

"So, this girl, Atarashi, is cheating her way through the tournament, and they're letting her get away with it?" Sai asked in a cold tone.

"In few words, yes." Hatoko nodded.

"But why?" Kaede knew it was bad, but her calm and sweet nature made her believe things couldn't be that bad without a very good reason.

"I'm afraid that's highly classified." Himemiya answered.

"And yet they know." Sai complained, signaling to the other four on the table.

"Actually, only Hatoko-chan and I know more than you do by this point. And even she doesn't have all the details." Himemiya admitted. "I'm the only one, besides Oujirou-kun who knows everything there is to know about this, and since you were able to recognize me back in the changing rooms you must know why I'm allowed to know that much."

Sai nodded, grudgingly admitting she was right.

"But why is this being allowed?" Kaede questioned.

"As we explained to you before, Oujirou-san didn't really have much of a choice." Hatoko intervened. "Atarashi was careful enough to cut off all his options before he could even think about most of them."

"But there must be a way." Kaede insisted. "Surely, Atarashi-san can't be allowed to get away with what she's planning."

"That's why I'm here." Himemiya said seriously. "Why no one knows I'm here, or even who I am. You see, Atarashi was clever enough to block Oujirou-san from every possibility she knew of, but since she didn't know about me…I'm an unknown in this, she doesn't even know I exist, less of all who I am, or what I'm capable of. That's what we're counting on."

"And you think you're capable of defeating her, even with her cheating?" Sai inquired.

"It's not about me thinking if I can or can't do it." The blue-eyed girl declared. "This is the only option. I can't not defeat her. It all depends on me doing that."

"And what after Mihara Oujirou?" Kaede asked, intrigued. "What if you do win, and then have to fight him?"

"Don't know." Himemiya admitted. "To be honest I haven't planned that far ahead. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"To the finalists of the National Tournament, the fight will begin in ten minutes!" They heard the announcement from the speakers.

"I gotta go." Himemiya announced.

"I'll get this to the trash cans and be right behind you." Hatoko told her as she collected all their trash and got on her away.

"Good luck, Angel princess." Sai called after her.

"Not you too." Himemiya said with false tiredness.

"Hey, it's catching." Sai couldn't help but smile.

Yes, she was angry at being cheated out of her rightful place as a finalist; but at the same time she couldn't wait to see that girl give the cheater her due in the upcoming fight…it was going to be good.

.---.

Himemiya was rushing through the halls of the Angelic Layer official building, as fast as she could safely move in her heels; it wouldn't do for her to loose to the Cheating Queens only because she was late…

So concentrated she was on moving fast yet carefully that she didn't see someone was on her way until she had already crashed against that someone. She would have fallen down, but the stranger took her hand softly yet firmly and managed to pull her up straight again, getting rid of her momentum by spinning her around, which also made her end up standing beside him rather than in front of him, ready to keep on moving.

"Gomen nasai." She apologized with a quick bow. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's quite alright miss, no harm done." The man assured her.

She recognized that voice immediately, and it was almost enough to make her collapse right on her spot; instead she forced herself to turn her back on him and get moving.

"Gomen, I gotta go, I'm gonna be late." She told him as she walked away.

"For a moment I could have almost sworn that was…" The man began, but then shook his head. "That's impossible. There's no way She would be here." He sighed sadly. "She's really never gonna forgive me…"

Unknown to him, the girl in question had stopped around the corner and was watching him in secret, his sadness reflected in her own eyes.

"I forgive you, Oujirou-kun…" she whispered, even knowing he wouldn't he able to hear her. "Aishiteru…"

* * *

So, one review...guess that's something, right?

I know I said this was a AUish, and it is! But many things will stay the same as in cannon, the essence remains, even if things seem abismaly different, you'll still find that, in the very core, they haven't changed that much.

So, hope someone is still reading this. And, if all goes right, I might have one or two fanarts to go with this story sometime soon.

See ya!


	3. The Will of a Deus

Hello everyone! I can't believe people are actually reading this. USually I would be depressed with just two reviews in one chapter and three for a full story, but considering I wasn't really expecting anyone to read this...it's great!

I must warn you that at the beggining of this chapter there's a pretty long flash back, one that will solve most of the doubts everyone may have, and will better explain just how AUish this is. Some may find it boring, since it's mostly narration, with little dialogue or action, but trust me, you need to read it to understand some of the things that have happened and will be happening, to know why our main characters are how and where they are.

So, that's all for now, enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter**** 3. The Will of a Deus**

With deep, slow breaths, Himitsu Himemiya was getting mentally ready for what she knew was coming; it was what she had been getting ready for, what she had trained so hard for all this time, why she had broken the promise made to herself all those years before:

_***Flashback***_

_She had been born in a little province of Japan, lost her father while still too young to have any actual memories of him, things had gotten especially bad when her mother's own health began declining. She had been a young girl back then, barely five years old, but she could still see something was wrong with her mom, which was why she didn't complain or cry when she was told her mother would be going to Tokyo for some time._

_A year was spent like that, with the young girl living with her grandparents, waiting to hear from her mother through the weekly letter or the sporadic phone call. The adults had tried to keep her ignorant to the seriousness of the situation, but in the end it had been useless. At the end of the year the girl just had one request: to be with her mom._

_It wasn't easy, but they all had agreed, and so the girl went to live to Tokyo, sharing a house with her mom and aunt. She did her best in school, earning a scholarship, so her family wouldn't have to worry about the money for her education._

_It made her so sad to see her mom struggling more and more when she tried to walk, and then when she was finally confined to a wheelchair; that's why when a man came to them, saying he was working on a project that could potentially give the woman back her ability to walk they were all so delighted._

_Of course it hadn't been easy. Even when the investigation had been yielding results, they were coming too slow, the investors had threatened to cancel the project altogether, they didn't want to keep putting money on something that couldn't be shown in public yet. They all feared that would be the end._

_Until the girl went to the labs for the first time, she had gotten out of school early that day, and the scientist helping her mom had invited her to see what they were working on. When she saw it, she didn't quite understand how that would help her mom walk again, the only thing she could see was a somewhat ugly doll being moved around in the platform. When they offered her to try and move the doll herself, she was delighted, the idea of being able to play with the toy without touching it, moving the doll with just her mind, it was almost as if it had life of its own, it fascinated her._

_And it was then that it occurred to them all, a way to get more money for their investigation, something to show their investors as temporary results, something that might even help them get records of results sooner. And so Angelic Layer was born._

_The child was given one of the first dolls to be made when it all became commercial, and she loved it. The idea of being able to personalize it, to make her doll absolutely unique, it was just one of the attractions she found in Angelic Layer. It became usual for her to go with her mom in the weekends and practice moving her doll, her Hikaru, all around the special platform, where her mom moved her own doll: Yume._

_And then it became even more fun when the scientist, Mr. Icchan as the girl called him, first introduced his little step-brother to them. The boy's name was Oujirou, he was very shy, even more so than her, but he too seemed to be immediately trapped by the magic of Angelic Layer. In a short time he had gotten his own Angel and named him Wizard. The two children enjoyed playing together with their angels, dancing together, or just chasing one another around the Layer. And all along, data of their actions was being recorded._

_A moment came when Angelic Layer became so popular that an official Tournament was issued. The girl was invited to participate, being told that as she was one of those with the most experience manipulating the angels in the Layer it would probably be very easy for her; and, to everyone's surprise, she declined._

_"I love Angelic Layer." She explained. "I love all the Angels so much, I don't want them to get hurt. I don't want Hikaru to get hurt, or for her to hurt others. I can't stop others from hurting or being hurt, but I won't do it myself. So I won't fight in Angelic Layer."_

_That was her final decision, no matter how hard they tried to convince her to change her mind; especially Oujirou, he was going to be a part of that new side of Angelic Layer, and wanted her to be by his side, like she had been since the beginning of the adventure. But still she refused, she wouldn't even train with him when that meant to fight; however, she still agreed to have their angels dance together whenever he wanted._

_The Tournaments began, and ever so slowly Oujirou became an idol as one of the best Deuses in the country, the same happened with her mother, and some others who had joined. Icchan had chosen not to participate in that capacity, instead he coordinated from behind the scenes, saying he wasn't very good as a deus anyway._

_A few more years passed, and the day came when the girl entered junior-high. Not much had changed in that time, she was still best-friends with Oujirou, who had recently begun to being called the Prince of the Layer; her mother was very busy most of the times, according to what Icchan had said, they were finally able to actually begin working on what would help get her out of that wheelchair. That made the girl happy._

_She had other friends of course, people who had nothing to do with Angelic Layer, like Kizaki Tamayo and Kobayashi Kotarou. She had known them for a good number of years by then, practically since beginning at the Eriol Academy, though at first they weren't in the same class. She could see that the two were attracted to each other, though Tamayo was too shy to admit it, and Kotarou too thick to notice it. And then she had met Kotarou's younger sister: Hatoko, and the girl had almost immediately recognized her, and her relation to Angelic Layer. Another friendship had begun there._

_Though there were many who couldn't really understand how someone could be best-friends with a girl seven years her junior, these two didn't care at all, they were happy. Hatoko too had tried to convince her of becoming a deus, but the blue-eyed girl had chosen to stick to her first decision, she wouldn't fight, she wouldn't hurt other angels._

_It was around that time that she finally had the joy of seeing her mother walking again, and not only that, but Mr. Icchan soon became a permanent fixture in their lives, marrying her mother and having them move into his own home._

_She got the chance to see her best friend more often, at least for a few months, before he announced he was moving to his own apartment. It made her sad, knowing she would miss seeing him in a daily basis, and it was also that which allowed him to see what she had been unable to see for so long: she was in love with her best friend. Though she had no idea how or when it had happened, she had fallen in love with him. Still, she thought it to be useless, he would never love her, how could he, he was five years her senior, so handsome, and so popular, there was no way he would ever notice her._

_And then he went and proved her wrong, he not only noticed her, but he confessed to being in love with her as well. By the time she turned fourteen they were officially going out. By the time she was fifteen she knew that was love, true love, and that she would never be able to love anyone else the way she did him. Still, she was young, she needed time to put her life in order before even considering something more serious with him._

_So she had finished junior high and gone to high school; where she soon showed her mastery in programming and the use of all kinds of software in general. Enough that it didn't take her long to certify herself as a programmer. Yet as much as she was a prodigy at that, her true passion was in fact a very different thing: dancing. She loved to dance, either through Hikaru, or herself, especially when Oujirou (or Wizard) danced with her. It made her very happy._

_Those five years of her relationship with Oujirou had been some of the best of her life, and she couldn't wait to tell him she was ready. She was waiting to finish high school, so she could tell him she had chosen what she wanted to do of her life, and that she wanted that life to be with him, she wanted to be with him forever._

_She had seen her two friends finally realize their love for each other, date and then even marry, one year before they even finished school. Yet she understood why they did it, they were in love; she probably wouldn't have minded too much getting married to the love of her life before finishing school either. But she knew how important it was for him to wait until the right time, how afraid he was that one day she would decide she preferred someone her own age instead of him; though she couldn't understand at all what he thought could ever make her do something like that._

_On the last day of her high school classes she was actually giddy with joy. She had a date with her boyfriend that day and was more than ready to begin sending him some non-subtle signs that she was ready when he were._

_And then it had all gone to hell, with Atarashi, and her blackmailing, and everything their families had worked so hard for in the line. All her plans burned._

_***End of Flashback***_

"In the east side Deus: Atarashi Kyoko, Angel: Queen." The excited voice from the announcer forcefully brought Himemiya back to reality. "On the west side Deus: Himitsu Himemiya, Angel: Hikaru…Angel fight!"

"May all your opponents kneel before you Queen!" Kyoko called out loud as she threw her angel into the platform. "Angel falling!"

"Angel wings! Please guide me and Hikaru!" Himemiya called softly as she carefully let Hikaru fall in the direction of the platform. "Angel descend!"

Knowing this was going to be the hardest battle of all Himemiya made Hikaru drop into a basic karate stance, sometimes it paid that two of her best friends were black belts and had their own dojo, the blue-eyed deus had seen them practicing enough to make Hikaru go through the moves, even if she couldn't do them herself.

"Do you really think you can defeat me?" Atarashi asked out-loud, cold eyes fixed straight on Himemiya. "You've just been lucky thus far."

"I guess we're about to find out, aren't we?" Himemiya answered, projecting a calm she wasn't really feeling at the time.

"I'm gonna squash you like the insect you are." Atarashi insisted.

Himemiya shook her head with a sigh, that had to be one of the lamest threats she had ever been issued in Angelic Layer.

Getting impatient at her opponent's apparent indifference to the fact that the match had just begun, Atarashi sent Queen into an attack.

Almost lazily Hikaru began moving through several basic katas, blocking some of Queen's attacks and dodging most of them. The small pink-haired angel was so fluid in her moves, one could almost believe it was a real person who had been studying karate her whole life. In fact, Himemiya knew both Tamayo and Kotarou enjoyed seeing Hikaru using moves they had shown the angel and deus pair, it made them feel proud.

The whole round went by pretty much that way, with Queen completely incapable of giving Hikaru more than a light scratch in a shoulder. When the bell sounded, announcing the end of the round everyone in the stadium could hear the frustrated sigh that came from Atarashi's mouth, she had really been expecting to win the match in one round, like she had won most of the others, but Himemiya hadn't allowed that to happen.

"I didn't think you would actually spend the whole round just blocking and dodging." Hatoko commented through their headsets.

"Actually, it wasn't quite as easy as I made it look." Himemiya answered. "I can understand how so many of Atarashi's opponents lost in the first round, and no one could find anything that would point to someone cheating."

"What do you mean?" Hatoko was suddenly confused.

"I mean that Atarashi isn't the one cheating, or at least not directly." Himemiya explained. "There's something on the layer, that creates some kind of electro-magnetic field that in turn breaks the focus between the deus and the angel."

"You mean it complicates you controlling Hikaru? But those devices, someone would need to have tampered with Hikaru. I remember the Fujisaki sisters being disqualified from one of the tournaments, years ago, when they tried it."

"But, like you said, that was years ago. Technology advances quickly, like Piffle Princess will soon be proving. It is possible that the device is right now either on the Layer, or even on the port to which my headset is connected."

"And how are we going to take it down?"

"I'm not sure if we can. Saying anything at all about something cheating at this point would defeat the purpose of me being in this incognito, and if we go for one of the possibilities and turn out to be wrong it'll be all that harder to prove we're right. No, we first need to be sure where this device is, we won't move for it until we're absolutely sure we're right."

"Can you handle things with that device blocking you?"

"I have to. The alternative is not one I even want to consider."

"Hai. Good luck Hime-chan, do your best Hikaru-chan, Suzuka and I believe in you."

"Arigato Hatoko-chan…" Himemiya whispered.

.---.

In the Control Room Oujirou's brow furrowed. The first round had just ended, and Atarashi hadn't won yet. That was unexpected, and confusing as well; it had never taken her more than a round to finish her opponents, what with her cheating and all; in fact it hadn't taken her more than a couple of minutes most of the time. And yet here they still were, on to the second round and still going, and from what he could see in the graphics her opponent had barely lost a few health points when she couldn't fully block an attack; in which case Queen too had lost a few points due to the way in which she was stopped and twice fell when missing an attack.

As much as Oujirou liked the idea of Atarashi not getting her way, he doubted he would be that lucky. The best deuses in all the country, including those who had been runner-ups for his position in previous years, had been defeated by the cheater already, what could possibly make this rookie that different from all the others?

At this point he just wanted it all to be over, he had resigned himself to his fate already, knowing that he would forever be remembered as the one who disgraced Angelic Layer, as the one who destroyed everything they were supposed to stand for…

"Oh Kami…" He sighed heavily. "If there were just a way to avoid this disaster…"

This time someone did hear him, the very same woman who had been keeping an eye on him all day discreetly.

"The best solution tends to be the easiest one, which coincidentally almost always happens to be the last one most people see…" The woman murmured under her breath, she shook her head slightly. "She did say you were never one to stopping to analyze things. I guess, in any case, it's a good thing She always seems to be ready to get you out of the holes you seem to bury yourself into…" she chuckled.

Several of her coworkers turned to look at her strangely.

"Is everything alright Hiromi-san?" A man in the station beside hers, one who had worked with her for quite a few years, questioned.

"Just fine." The woman in question, Fujimori Hiromi declared.

The young man nodded and turned back to his station, when Hiromi heard another woman speak in a very low tone, so low she doubted anyone other than her heard her at all.

"She thinks it's funny that Queen is loosing?" The woman in her early twenties mumbled. "Just wait until Kyoko-sama goes all out against that foolish child. Then we'll see if 'Fujimori-san' has anything to laugh about."

The girl said Hiromi's name with such contempt it was obvious she didn't like the older woman; and yet Hiromi had been working in Piffle Princess for so long, while that girl had been hired as a junior assistant not even three months before, it's not like enough time had passed for the girl to actually hate her. And suddenly it dawned on Hiromi.

"We've found our leak…" she whispered to herself.

.---.

The five minutes of the second round were almost over, something Himemiya was deeply grateful for, her head was practically pounding already due to how hard she had to concentrate to get through the interference caused by the electro-magnetic field and get Hikaru to move the way she needed to.

Because of that she had had quite some close calls with attacks from Queen, and once Hikaru had nearly run right over the edge of the platform.

Finally the bell sounded and Himemiya used a burst of power to make Hikaru jump out of the Layer and into her hands, while she half-heard Atarashi muttering under her breath, probably cursing her for being able to last that long.

The blue-eyed deus half-staggered to the station, where Hatoko helped her onto the chair.

"Are you alright?" Hatoko asked worriedly, though she could already tell her friend wasn't.

"I feel like my head is about to split open." Himemiya admitted as she took deep breaths in an attempt to ease her headache.

"I would offer you some Motrin, but I have a feeling someone would then argue you were cheating, somehow." Hatoko said apologetically.

Himemiya half-nodded, still concentrated in relaxing as much as possible.

"It cannot be easy to send commands to Hikaru while at the same time fighting against an electromagnetic field." Hatoko declared while running a few scans on Hikaru, making sure the Angel hadn't been damaged for the effort her deus was making.

"They upped the force of the field." The older deus announced.

"What?!" Hatoko almost fell down in shock at this news.

"Like you heard, the electromagnetic field was stronger this time around than during the first round. There's no way Atarashi could have done that, so I guess it was her Second."

"I don't like this. What if she keeps doing this through the third round."

"I'm quite sure that's the plan. Atarashi can't be happy that I've lasted this long, even if thus far I haven't been able to fight back. If this keeps going I don't know what I'm gonna do."

"Have you discovered yet where the electromagnetic field is coming from?"

"I'm almost sure it's on the field, on my side of the field, close enough to my port so that it interferes with my signal primarily; yet not in the port itself, seeing as Atarashi has been so careful on not getting Queen too close to my side of the Layer. Still, I wasn't able to pinpoint an exact origin of the signal, so there's not much we can do in that area."

"I may be able to do something." Hatoko admitted under her breath. "It won't deactivate the field, not completely at least, but must be enough to lower it considerably, and stop them from making it worse again."

"What exactly are you planning?"

"To bring down the stations?"

"You can do that?!"

"Hai, it's not easy, and to be honest it's not completely safe either. I'll send a special pulse from my station and to theirs, it will only affect our stations, you've need not worry, it won't touch you, the Layer or even Atarashi; still, it'll be enough to turn off everything in our respective stations, including the official equipment given to us for the Tournament, and anything else we might have, cellphones, mp3 players, absolutely everything."

"What's the catch?"

"That we might not be able to turn them on again even when I cancel the pulse."

"You won't be affecting anyone else? Not even the public that happens to be sitting close to the stations?"

"No one else, I promise you. The signal will travel through the wires connecting both stations together, and no further."

"If you're willing to risk your own possessions I would say go through with it."

"Alright."

"I was also going to tell you that there was a chance you wouldn't be able to reach me during the third round anyway."

"Why?"

"I'm going to go into Deep-Mind mode. It's a kind of meditation in which I'm deeply connected to the Angel; it's the only thing I can think of to bypass the electromagnetic field and move Hikaru with enough fluidity to actually have a chance at defeating Queen."

"Deep Mind? I had never heard about that."

"You wouldn't, it's quite hard, and it can be dangerous if not done correctly, very few people can actually achieve it. If you wish I could teach it to you some time."

Hatoko nodded immediately, excited at the prospect of learning something new, especially something that may help her be a better deus and make Suzuka a better angel.

"Oh, by the way Hiromi-san called right before you came down here." Hatoko remembered.

"Really?" That kinda surprised Himemiya. "What did she have to say?"

"She said she thinks she found the leak." Hatoko answered. "She's running a few discreet scans to be completely sure, but is almost positive. She'll be waiting for you to give her the signal and call security to arrest her for corporative espionage."

"Guess that won't be happening until I've won this fight." Himemiya declared with a tired sigh. "But I have to say it helps to know that some things are falling into place finally."

"Oh, you mean like this box Ryo-san brought me shortly before you finished your round?" Hatoko inquired, a strange glint in her eyes.

A full-blown smile appeared on Himemiya's face. Yes, things were finally falling into place, now she just had to win the fight.

* * *

Things are finally falling into place, review if you wanna know just how Hime-chan will handle this.


	4. The Talent of a Champion

**Chapter 4. The Talent of a Champion**

As soon as she released Hikaru into the Layer Himemiya began taking very deep and slow breaths, easing herself into a meditative state. It wasn't exactly new for her, as she had done it quite a few times before, first with the help of her mother and later on her own, she was so good at it she could do it quite easily, still, she wouldn't be doing it in that moment if she didn't believe it to be absolutely necessary.

'Very well,' She thought to herself as she managed what she wanted. 'Here we go Hikaru.'

The moment the bell sounded to announce the beginning of the third round Hatoko pushed a button in her cellphone, releasing the pulse that would bring down every piece of technology in both her station and her opponent's. Barely seconds later she could see the other girl begin typing furiously, obviously trying to bring the program back on-line, Hatoko knew already it would be totally useless; and yet, for appearances purpose she too began typing away as fast as she could, while pretending to be panic-stricken.

.---.

Among the public, four certain some ones had noticed already the apparently frantic moves of both finalists' seconds.

"What's going on?" Kaede asked with evident concern.

"No idea." Tamayo answered, truly confused.

"You know, Hatoko isn't actually as frustrated and worried as she's pretending to be." Kotarou commented suddenly, his eyes fixed straight on his younger sister.

"What makes you so sure of that?" Kaede questioned.

"I know my sister." Kotarou explained. "I know how she gets when something goes wrong, or when she finds herself in trouble; right now neither of those things has happened; she actually seems to be concentrating very hard on keeping the façade of someone having a panic attack."

Sai chuckled suddenly.

"What?" They all turned to look at the tall young woman immediately.

"If you people wanna hear my guess." She explained. "I'm betting the 'little goddess' has found out how the cheating queens did their cheap tricks and did something to stop them, something that at the same time caused both of the seconds' stations to go off-line."

The other three didn't know how, but something made them believe Sai was right; and that was something that made all of them very, very happy indeed.

.---.

In the Control Room Hiromi had just received a small message that read: "Thanks for the tip. We'll be just fine." when suddenly she had received notice that something was wrong with the stations that were being used by the seconds. It took a few seconds for the programmer to understand that the second part of Hatoko's message was referring precisely to that, meaning that she had caused the situation, which made her believe it had been something necessary so…she would be doing absolutely nothing about it.

Very careful not to be noticed Hiromi gave a few commands from her station, so they would ignore the trouble in the stations. She had absolutely no idea how that was going to help Hatoko and Himemiya exactly, but at this point in time she was willing to do anything.

What Hiromi wasn't expecting was for someone to be supervising all the programmers in their stations, that someone to actually notice what was going on, and choose to do the same thing as her and ignore the situation altogether.

'What game are you playing Hiromi-san?' Oujirou wondered to himself. 'Who are you helping by ignoring this and why?'

Hadn't the young man been so ashamed about what he was allowing already, the young man in charge would have probably reprimanded the programmer-assistant; but he knew that whatever the reason for her unusual actions, it didn't really make any change on the actual situation between the deuses; and yet at the same time he couldn't help but wonder, had the case been different, had Hiromi's actions been in favor of Atarashi's opponent, if he would have done anything at all. Of course, at that point in time there were just too many things he didn't really know…

.---.

"And the kick connects! For the first time since the beginning of this fight Hikaru is fighting back!" The announcer practically screamed into his mike.

Some would believe he actually had a reason to be excited this time. Hikaru had just used Suzuka's classic move, the rolling thunder, and connected against Queen, sending her flying and with some considerable damage.

"It's impossible!" Atarashi practically screeched. "You're small, an insect, there's no way you'll win. You cannot defeat me! I cannot be defeated!!!"

"In Angelic Layer, neither age nor size matter." Hatoko said what had become like her motto since beginning in Angelic Layer shortly before turning five. "The small ones have their own style of fighting and also of winning. Anyone can win in Angelic Layer if they just believe in themselves and their angel…that's the beauty of all this…"

It was in that very moment that Atarashi seem to notice the strange state her rival was in.

"Is she asleep?" She asked, confusion overpowering her anger for a few seconds.

But Himemiya certainly wasn't asleep, she was just in a very deep meditation, with her eyes half-closed and glazed, she didn't move, didn't blink and one could barely see her chest move slightly with each deep and slow breath. All her concentration was on her angel, with her body only continuing the most basic of functions, only those needed to survive, leaving her in a state of apparent catatonia.

"Now, this is quite unprecedented." The announcer said in a confused tone. "We don't know what's happening with Himemiya-san, though since Hikaru keeps moving we can guess it's not that bad…"

"She's in a meditative state." Hatoko yelled, since her mike wasn't working.

The announcer managed to hear her, but didn't repeat what she had just said, instead he just nodded to himself and kept commenting as the battle continued.

.---.

Oujirou couldn't help but wonder if the surprises would never cease that day. First Himemiya managed to defeat Fujisawa's angel against all odds; then he bumped into that girl he had confused with his ex-girlfriend; then Himemiya managed to get through the first round and the second; then Hiromi choosing to ignore the warning that the seconds' stations had gone off-line; and now this.

"What is she doing?" She heard one of the youngest junior assistants question.

"She's in a very deeply meditative state." Senior assistant-engineer Ogata Masaharu spoke. "Right now Himitsu-san's mind is focused in nothing except the movement of her Angel, leaving just a corner of her mind to take over the basic and most needed bodily functions, and everything else in stand-by."

"Is that even possible?" Another assistant asked, between confused and amazed.

"It is." Oujirou spoke. "The state is actually called Deep-Mind most people don't even know it exists; and even then only a handful can do it. In fact, up until now I only knew of Shuu-san and I being able to do it."

"It seems to me you're forgetting someone…" He barely heard Hiromi whisper, more to herself than to anyone else.

And not for the first time in the last hour Oujirou couldn't help but wonder what exactly she knew about what was happening.

.---.

With a powerful spinning kick Hikaru sent Queen flying into the opposite side of the Layer. By then both Angels were pretty low on Health Points, and all the public knew the end would come soon, for either competitor. Of course none of them had any idea why the actual fight hadn't begun until the third round, but at this point they didn't care either.

Queen staggered a bit as she got on her feet, it almost seemed as if she were carrying a very heavy burden, and maybe in a sense she was; Hikaru had thrown her into the general area where Hatoko and Himemiya guessed the center of the electromagnetic field was connected.

Under normal circumstances Himemiya would probably be feeling guilty and sad for the pain she was making the other deus go through, and the angel as well; but in that time her whole concentration was on Hikaru's every move, nothing else even occurred to her.

"You won't defeat me." Atarashi growled as she managed to move Queen away from the electromagnetic field. "Nobody will defeat me. I'll be the Only Queen of Angelic Layer!"

Suddenly a snap echoed in the stadium as Queen twisted a small weapon in her hands: whips, black electrified whips.

.---.

"That's illegal!" Sai hissed.

"I'm guessing most people don't know that." Tamayo commented, wondering if she should be angry as well, or only worried.

"It's been so long since anyone tried to do such a dishonorable thing on the Layer," Kaede commented. "Most people probably don't remember some things any more."

"Someone is really getting desperate." Kotarou commented suddenly.

The others turned to look at him.

"I may not be as much of an expert in this as some of you are." Kotarou declared. "But some things are pretty obvious, even to me. Atarashi is taking a great risk on using those things now, especially since this is the final of the Nationals, she must know there's the chance that not even Oujirou-san will be able to cover up for her if others realize what she's doing is illegal and demand she's disqualified. At this point it seems to me that she no longer cares about official titles, she only wants to prove she can defeat Himemiya-san, no matter how."

Yes, no matter how…and that was exactly what worried them.

.---.

Hiromi furrowed her brow as her whole expression became a scowl, she couldn't believe the woman had the gall to go that far, and what was even worse, her boss was still doing nothing at all to stop her!

"I don't like this…" She heard Masaharu mumble.

Hiromi half-smiled at her boyfriend, the poor man had no idea of what was actually happening on the Layer in that moment, or at least not everything. He obviously could see something was wrong, and at this point that Atarashi was openly cheating, going as far as using tools that had been banned from Angelic Layer practically since its conception. Still, and as talented as the man could be at times, she had chosen not to tell her anything, he was too transparent, she feared their boss would have noticed something going on way too fast.

"Ogata, check the official books, see if there's something regarding the use of tools in the Layer, particularly black whips." Oujirou ordered.

Of course he already knew there was something in the books, and that those things were more than a 'tool'; but Oujirou was still so convinced that there was no way out of his situation that he didn't dare take the chance to disqualify Atarashi already.

Hiromi could only roll her eyes, Himemiya had been right when saying that Oujirou could sometimes be blind to the most obvious things: like other possible solutions to the problem, or the fact of just who was providing that solution. Still, the assistant-programmer remembered very well how she had gotten involved in all this madness.

_***Flashback*** _

_It had been a couple of weeks since her main bosses and two senior assistants had left on a business trip to get the finals part of the budget and some paperwork finished so they could official beginning with Piffle Princess's new project. Of course, that would be officially, unofficially they had been working on it for the past five years. Hiromi being one of the senior assistant-programmers in the Company was part of the project, as a matter of fact, for what she remembered there were only four assistants involved, two for the programmers and two for the engineers, as well as the four main people who had been working each on their respective part of the project; two engineers, a programmer and a designer. _

_So she had been in her office, shifting through a pile of paperwork concerning some of the most famous deuses, those who were expected to participate in the upcoming tournament; when suddenly her phone rang. _

"_Moshi moshi…" she answered, the voice she heard on the other side hadn't exactly surprised her, what had surprised her were the words. "Nani?!...Iie, that' can be right…It can't…It's not possible…You cannot possibly expect to me believe that he's going along with this…But it's illegal! It's more than illegal, it's just wrong!!!...Hai, hai, of course I believe you. It's just that, it's hard, you know? To think of him in that light…What exactly am I supposed to do with this information?...What do you mean nothing? I can't just do nothing. There must be a reason you even told me all this!...So that's it then. Of course I'll help you. Count me in for anything you may need…I'll be seeing you in the tournament then…Good luck…" _

_As she had hung up she couldn't help but let out a deep sigh. She almost hadn't believed everything she had been told; in fact, if anyone else had tried to convince her of that very thing she would have never believed it. But She knew she would never lied, not about him or about Angelic Layer, and this disaster involved both. _

_Hiromi had known the caller for so long, ever since the project of Angelic Layer had begun, how could she not agree to do anything she could to help? _

_***End of Flashback*** _

And that's how her involvement had begun. She hadn't had to do much thus far, tweak a few things to allow the registration for the tournament with as little info on the deus as possible, make sure no one would be asking 'unnecessary' questions and of course search for the leak that had allowed this madness to begin in the first place.

The first two had been easy, the third not so much, though she thought she had finally done it, and if what was just appearing on her monitor was anything to go by she defiantly had; now she only needed to wait for the right moment to act on her new knowledge.

.---.

Himemiya's body visibly flinched when one of the black whips came in contact with Hikaru, it was one of the downsides to the Deep-Mind state, she was so connected to her angel that she felt whatever Hikaru felt, even if not physically, her mind still reacted to it. So when Queen shocked Hikaru with her electric-whip Himemiya felt as if she had just been electrocuted herself. It was very unpleasing.

'Keep moving Hikaru…' Himemiya thought to her angel. 'Never stop moving.'

"Come on Hime-chan, Hikaru…" Hatoko whispered, her eyes fixed on the Layer. "Don't give up, not now, not when you're so close."

And they were close, even if the shocking had lowered her health points some, Himemiya had noticed, even if just in a far corner of her mind, that she no longer felt the pressure from the electro-magnetic field; apparently her opponents must have decided at some point that it was too dangerous for themselves, and not worth it when it wouldn't be enough to keep their own rivals from moving.

Still, that didn't make the blue-eyed deus go out of the Deep-Mind mode, at this point she was in too deep, if she even tried to get out it would take her some time to get back to normal, time Hikaru wouldn't be able to move, giving their opponents a perfect opening; no the robed deus wasn't willing to take that chance.

The snaps were still being heard as Queen kept trying to ensnare Hikaru with her whips, which the pink-haired angel managed to avoid, though barely.

Snap, snap, snap-snap, snap…

And suddenly something occurred to Himemiya. Maybe it was that she was so tired, or the headache was somehow making her hallucinate in some way, but she could almost hear a rhythm in the snaps of the whip. And then something occurred to her:

_***Flashback*** _

"_Now, follow me." Her mother was telling her from across the Layer, one of the first headsets on her. "Right, right, left, right, spin and clap; right, right, left, right, spin and clap…" _

_In the Layer a small doll with mid-back length dark purple hair in a plum colored dress was dancing to the rhythm of a song in the background, with the steps the woman behind it kept repeating out loud. _

"_Right, right, left, right, spin and clap…" The seven year old girl repeated the same sequence out loud as she made the pink-haired doll in the red bodysuit move in tandem, though they were off by a few beats. "I can't do it kaa-san." _

"_Hai, you can, you just gotta keep trying." The older woman insisted. "Lets try again. Right, right, left, right, spin and clap…one, two, three, four, one, two, three…" _

"_Right, right, left, right, spin and clap…" The girl repeated the words and the motions, and things went a bit better, though she still had trouble halfway through the series when her angel stumbled once. _

"_You just keep doing it sweetie." Her mother said. "Practice makes the master, after all." _

"_But how will this help anything?" The girl questioned, curious. _

"_Dancing is about the coordination; following a series of moves in a very specific rhythm, and making your angel make each move in the exact movement; so coordination and precision. Those two things are very important. Keep on and you'll see that soon you'll be able to move Hikaru as if she were a part of you." _

_***End of Flashback*** _

'Move Hikaru as if she were a part of me…' the blue-eyed deus told herself. 'We will do it Hikaru, we'll show everyone how great a team we are. Lets dance.'

When Hikaru began her new series of moves the public couldn't help but wonder what exactly she pretended. Even Hatoko could hear the questions coming from some people: 'What does she think she's doing?'

"She's doing what she does best." Hatoko said to no one in particular. "Dancing."

And dancing she was, the very same basic sequence of steps she had first learnt more than a decade before with help from her mother. Then from that she advanced to various other combinations of moves, each more complex than the previous one, all of them woven together in a perfect harmony, following the rhythm of some silent music only the deus could hear, all in all a very beautiful dance.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Atarashi shrieked as she kept trying to make Queen hit Hikaru, but it was useless.

Himemiya didn't answer out loud, she obviously couldn't, instead Hikaru laughed for her; filled with glee at knowing what she was managing.

"This'll be over soon." Hatoko declared with a smile of her own.

The violet eyed girl took a quick glance at the bunch of papers her best-friend had been reading before beginning her first battle of the day; then another at the box filled with a variety of papers, disks and objects that a young man had brought to her less than an hour ago; and finally to her cellphone, which though it was no longer working the teen could still remember the last call she had received, the notice from Hiromi. Those were the details, the little things that on their own didn't mean much, but together meant that they were very close to their goal: soon the Cheating Queens would fall.

And then, it happened: Hikaru leapt into the air in a continuous spin, managing to land past the whips, right in front of Queen, where the pink-haired angel then extended her right leg just enough to deliver a hard spinning kick that made Queen drop the whips and sent her flying all across the Layer and straight out.

Silence reigned for a few long seconds in the stadium, it seemed no one had been expecting that at all, and finally, chaos:

"Hikaru wins!!!" The announcer screamed from his mike.

And the public began screaming even louder then.

"Ladies and gentlemen, fans of the Layer, we have a new Champion." The announcer called in his most excited tone yet. "The Miracle Rookie: Himitsu Himemiya, and her angel: Hikaru!!!"

.---.

Oujirou was so shocked he practically dropped into his chair, he could barely believe that what had just happened actually had; in fact, he probably wouldn't have believed any of it if he hadn't been watching it with his own eyes.

"She won!!" Masaharu began cheering. "She actually won."

"I always knew she would." Hiromi confessed with a funny grin on her face.

"Well yeah, but considering all the difficulties she seemed to having on the first two rounds." Masaharu began explaining. "And then the whips…" he turned to his boss. "By the way, Oujirou, chief, those whips are illegal."

Oujirou nodded seriously, his way of saying the situation would be dealt with. Though he still wondered how exactly he was going to deal with the blackmail Atarashi had issued first; it's not like there was a backup plan in case she happened to loose despite all her tricks, she never thought she could possibly loose, neither did he for that matter. And yet she had, and he had no idea what he would do now.

"Uh boss, I think it's your turn to go out there." Masaharu reminded him.

Oujirou nodded, still half-distracted by the new problem that seemed to be presenting itself to him all of a sudden; though, as he reached his egg-seat and Hiromi, his second, handed him his headset he decided he would worry about all that once his battle was over, in that moment he just wanted to enjoy the upcoming fight; it seemed to him like it might be the one he had been waiting for for so long…

* * *

What can I say? Not much without giving out spoilers, though some of ou probably already imagine what's coming up. There are just two chapters left before this is over, hope you'll enjoy them, and that you enjoyed this one too.

Coming next: _Wings of an Angel_ (The biggest secrets in this story will finally be revealed...or at least most of them).


	5. The Wings of an Angel

**Chapter 5. The Wings of an Angel **

"You did it!" Hatoko exclaimed as soon as the older deus was in front of her.

"We did it." The blue-eyed deus corrected. "All of us together."

They'd been very lucky that Hatoko's fears had been proven false and the stations had gone back online as soon as the pulse that began it was cancelled, which was until Hatoko was sure the fight was over and Hikaru had won. Hatoko began running some scans on Hikaru.

"Now comes the hard part." Himemiya announced as she took a moment to relax.

"I thought the hard part was fighting through an electromagnetic field and then against illegal electric whips." Hatoko groaned sarcastically. "What can be harder than that?"

"Facing the truth." Himemiya answered in a whisper.

Turning to see the one entering the arena Hatoko understood what the older girl meant, the young man with an angel over his arm: the Prince of the Layer, Mihara Oujirou.

"The hard part indeed…" Hatoko mumbled under her breath, and as the equipment in front of her beeped and showed several warnings she cursed. "Hard will be fighting Wizard for more than two minutes in the condition Hikaru is currently in."

Himemiya looked over the younger girl's head, taking notice of everything on the monitor.

"I pushed her too hard." She moaned. "I shouldn't have, at least not in this mode."

"What do you mean this mode?" Hatoko was suddenly very intrigued. "You mean like the Hyper-Mode Shirahime and Bransher can use?"

"Iie." Himemiya almost slapped herself for her slip. "It's something else, something new. Remember I told you Hikaru was one of the original angels? One of the first to be made?"

"Along with Yume, Wizard, and others that aren't even in use anymore." Hatoko nodded.

"Hai, well, mostly those angels have fallen in disuse because they lack the improvements of the new generations." Himemiya explained. "Wizard and Hikaru, on the other hand, have been constantly modified; the same was done once the angel Athena was created. It was easier to do that, instead of having the Goddess Queen using a new angel each year."

"So Wizard and Hikaru, and Athena of course, are really advanced even though they were first made long before other more modern models?"

"It's more than that. All three angels have undergone a very particular modification, one that hasn't been commercialized, one that isn't even public knowledge yet."

"The top-secret project!"

"I'm not sure if this could be considered illegal, don't think so." Himemiya murmured as she came closer to her angel. "It's a legal modification, one that will become official soon, and that Wizard possesses as well. And really, it's the only way Hikaru will be able to even stand today again." She began typing, overriding the usual pre-programmed commands and giving her own, finishing with a whispered password: "Tenshi no Tsubasa…"

There was a short flash of silver light and then nothing, nothing seemed to have changed, and Himemiya knew the differences wouldn't be noticed until she had her angel back in the Layer.

"You cheated!!" The sudden scream called everyone's attention.

Himemiya had to actually blink a few times while the accusation registered fully in her brain. Atarashi was standing there before her, practically purple with anger, her fists balled at her sides, behind her the girl who had been her second held Queen loosely in her hands.

"Why? Because I could overcome our cheap tricks?" Himemiya retorted. "That's not cheating, that's just being better than you."

Before Atarashi could argue any more security guards arrived and 'guided' the girls out.

.---.

"And we're finally here!" The announcer called some time later. "The final fight from this amazing tournament: our Miracle Rookie, Himitsu Himemiya, is now the National Champion of Angelic Layer, but will she be able to give us another miracle and defeat the Prince of the Layer, our very own Mihara Oujirou? We're about to find out."

Being the champion, Himemiya was expected to be the one to send her angel in first and she did; what no one seemed to notice was that she didn't throw Hikaru in, instead she just extended her hands and the pink-haired doll seemed to jump by herself onto the Layer.

As she fell Hikaru twirled gracefully, landing with one leg bent, behind the other as she stood on the tip of her toes; looking like a professional dancer, a very beautiful dancer. And as her eyes opened no one seemed to notice they were a bit more violet than red…

Oujirou sent Wizard into the Layer then, making him flip a few times before landing with one leg crossed in front of the other, one arm to the side and the other extended before him.

In any other situation one would believe Hikaru and Wizard were about to begin dancing together instead of fighting and, truth is, that was what the two deuses had been unconsciously projecting. They were so used to it, that even when Himemiya knew they were supposed to fight, and Oujirou didn't even know who was beneath the cloak, their angels had followed the deeply buried instincts the humans had.

"Hime-chan…" Hatoko whispered.

That made the older girl react, she fluidly changed Hikaru's posture into a basic defensive karate stance, ignoring the strange looks Hatoko was directing at her.

Oujirou too seemed to react when seeing the new posture in the other angel; though Wizard just straightened up and stayed completely immobile.

"Please…" Himemiya complained under her breath. "Don't insult me. You'll have to do something better than that if you expect to stand up to me."

"Really?" Oujirou, who had managed to hear her, replied in a mocking tone. "I wonder if you actually know what you're asking for."

Himemiya sent a silent command to Hikaru, who shot like an arrow in Wizard's direction; Oujirou was so sure it would be completely useless…until he saw Hikaru drop to the ground, slid beneath some unseen wall and raise her legs in time to deliver a kick to Wizard's chin.

The whole stadium was in shocked silence for almost a full minute, as if they were trying to make sure what they had just seen had actually happened…

"She hit him!" The announcer cried out. "Hikaru actually hit Wizard! It seems our Prince of the Layer might actually have to fight this time…"

Oujirou barely managed to snap out of his shock, he couldn't believe his rival had bypassed the Magic Guard and kicked him without any visible trouble; either the guard wasn't working as it should, or the other deus knew what he'd been doing without him saying a thing at all.

"I told you it wouldn't do well for you to underestimate me." Himemiya reminded him calmly.

"I see that now miss." Oujirou answered in a suave tone. "Please forgive me, I assure you, I'll be taking this seriously from now on."

"One can only hope." Himemiya said sarcastically.

The battle went back on then, with both angels exchanging kicks and punches like there was no tomorrow; they rarely connected, but even when they did, even when one of them was thrown down or away, they would get back up and attacking again right away. It was almost like a dance, a very intricate, very dangerous dance.

.---.

"That's just absolutely amazing…" Hatoko heard Ryo's voice as he approached her from a side. "I had never in my life seen something like it."

"Not many have." Hatoko agreed, still with an eye on the Layer she asked. "So, what's new?"

"Not much." He said as he vaguely signaled to the box. "That was all really, I just went back to make sure I hadn't left anything behind."

"Yeah, that would sure have been problematic." Hatoko agreed with a wince. "So, she's got nothing to use against us?"

"Not anymore." Ryo assured her.

"Great." Hatoko smiled. "You have our deepest thanks Ryo-san, mine and hers. If there's any way to pay you back I'm sure…"

"You should know already that's not necessary." Ryo told her. "I was more than happy to help. You two helped me out, back when I knew much less about Angelic Layer than I liked to pretend I did; I always wanted to find a way to thank you properly and this worked just fine."

"More than fine I would say." The violet-eyed girl declared. "Now we just have to wait…"

"Who do you think will win this one?"

"No idea. But I'm sure whoever does, the battle will be great."

"More than it is already?"

"Oh Ryo-san, you've got no idea, they're just warming up…"

.---.

As the minutes passed Hikaru and Wizard continued delivering, blocking and evading blows at a very fast pace; it was obvious to everyone that neither deus was willing to back down, they were both ready to give everything they had in that battle, and even more.

"You seem to be very good at this Himitsu-san…" Oujirou commented off-handedly, turning his eyes to the other deus, while controlling his angel's moves in the back of his mind.

"Arigato, O…Mihara-san, I learned from the best." She assured him with a sly grin he didn't get to see, wondering how long it would take him to realize the truth.

"You know, your angel reminds me a lot of another I've met before." He commented.

"Really?" She asked. "Well, that's quite possible, you see, I created my angel based on my favorite character from an old anime I was a fan of years ago."

"That's quite interesting Himitsu-san." He declared, curious. "Just how long have you been playing with angels?"

"Haven't you heard what people call me? The Miracle Rookie?" She questioned. "Before this tournament I had never participated in Angelic Layer before."

"That doesn't quite answer my question." Oujirou pointed out calmly, wondering if she was purposefully evading it, or it had been just a mistake on her part.

"It doesn't, does it?" Was all she said in return.

'Come on, come on, Oujirou-kun' she said to herself. 'You can't really be that blind.'

Only a few people seemed to notice the fact that the two deuses were chatting together, as they weren't being too loud, and their angels continued fighting; but those who did notice couldn't help but marvel at the whole thing. The idea that two people could guide their angels in a fight, and especially one as amazing as the one Wizard and Hikaru were involved in, and at the same time hold a conversation with each other was absolutely incredible, and very much unprecedented. It seemed to those who did notice that Mihara Oujirou and Himitsu Himemiya were there to break all the records, to bypass all the limits, to show all of those present a whole new level to Angelic Layer.

.---.

Hatoko and Ryo stood next to each other, neither of them paying any attention to the monitors that showed the state of both angels, too busy trying to keep track of everything that was going on in the Layer itself, both Wizard and Hikaru seemed to just be moving so fast…

Ryo especially had a hard time digesting what was happening in the Layer before him. He, of course, knew Himemiya already, had known her for quite a few years, he also knew just how great her talent was; and yet nothing could have prepared him to what he was witnessing in that battle against the 'Prince of the Layer'.

He could still recall with perfect clarity the first meeting between them:

_***Flashback*** _

_That year's tournament had begun just the previous day and he had lost already; the worst part of all, at least to him, was that he had lost against a girl, a silly little girl! _

_He had been so angry. So that morning he had decided to go to Piffle Princess, rent a Layer and blow some steam. Arriving, only to see that all Layers were occupied hadn't helped his mood any, until in the corner he saw something: the kid who'd been responsible for him being disqualified, she seemed to be about to leave, while another girl was sitting before the farthest Layer. The second girl was a few years older than the first, though he still thought she was too much of a kid to be a part of Angelic Layer, he saw she'd an angel, a pink-haired little thing in a red bodysuit, and seemed to just be making it twirl around the Layer. That seemed to make up his mind, silly girls were just playing, they had no idea how important Angelic Layer was to some of them, they shouldn't be able to take the places those like he deserved. _

_So Ryo went back to the registration table, this time he actually got a look at the registry sheet in the woman's hand, seeing the Layer in the corner didn't have any name, which meant the girl hadn't asked for it; he considered pointing that out to the woman as she told him, again, that there were no Layers free, but in the end decided that if she cared so little about how bad a job she was doing he wouldn't care either, he would just go and get himself a Layer. _

_When getting close enough to that corner he'd been able to hear an old song coming out from the small stereo on the floor, and realized her angel's moves actually followed the rhythm of the song. Still, that didn't make her deserve the Layer any more than he did, or so he thought. _

"_Hi." She seemed to notice her presence right then. "Are you here to practice too?" _

_Ryo just nodded, imagining she meant like all the others in the rest of the Layers, she couldn't possibly believe what she was doing was practice. _

"_All the other Layers are occupied." She pointed out the obvious. "Do you want to share?" _

"_Fine…" As he began taking out his own angels, suddenly an idea occurred to him. "Why don't you practice with me?" _

"_Sure." She agreed right away. "Can you hear the music?" _

"_Why would I want to hear it?" He tossed his angels in before stopping, confused. _

"_So you can follow the rhythm too and practice with me, of course." She explained simply. _

"_That's not practice!" He snapped at her. "Practice is fighting! That's what Angelic Layer is about. When I agreed to practice with you I meant a fight, your angel against mine." _

"_But I don't like fighting." She replied softly. _

"_Then what are you doing here? This is what Angelic Layer is all about." _

"_No it's not!" Her voice rose as her confidence suddenly grew. "Angelic Layer is about loving your angel, and believing in him or her being able to do everything you've ever dreamed of." _

"_That's stupid." _

_To prove himself right, the boy put on his headset and guided his angels to attack against the girl's own. She evaded him, again and again, never once stopping her dancing. That continued until he lost his patience, and began coordinating more complicated and vicious attacks; still it was all useless, the only thing that he managed was, eventually, to send his own angels off the Layer when the girl's moved aside for the umpteenth time. He was shocked, and furious. _

"_What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled at her. _

"_Dancing with my angel." She answered him simply. _

_He had been about to move against her, so livid was he by then, when two members of the security arrived and kindly suggested he left the building before he caused any serious trouble. _

_Then, as he had been lead out, from comments of the men escorting him, he had been able to piece out just who the girl he had tried to attack was: the twelve year old daughter of one the creators of Angelic Layer, one of the deuses with the most experience, even when she had refused to actually participate in any battles, she was still considered as much of a prodigy as the Prince of the Layer Mihara Oujirou and the Queen Goddess Shuu. _

_***End of Flashback*** _

It was after that nearly-disastrous encounter that he had finally come to two very strong realizations: Angelic Layer wasn't only about the fights, it was also about the angels and the deuses, the relationship between both; and in the Layer it didn't matter if you were big or small, a boy or a girl, everyone had equal chance of being great. Yes, he'd definitely learnt a lot from that first encounter with the blue-eyed deus, and a part of him believed he was a better person thanks to her, at least he hoped so.

He had never really gotten very far in any tournament, but that didn't anger him anymore; he had decided to just enjoy playing the game, not minding too much who won in the end.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Hatoko suddenly asked him.

"The first time I met you, both of you." Ryo replied. "And how much I've changed since."

"Oh yeah, she told me about that." Hatoko said, furrowing her brow a little. "I don't even want to imagine what I would have done to you had you tried that ugly little trick on me."

"I don't wanna know either, but somehow I feel it wouldn't have had as good a result as what she did." Ryo admitted.

"But she did nothing, except keep dancing that is."

"Exactly."

And as he said that Ryo signaled to the still ongoing match between Wizard and Hikaru.

Hatoko understood, he was right; she remembered how she hadn't been sure when Himemiya had suggested asking his help with the plan to recover the things Atarashi and her accomplices had stolen, the violet-eyed girl hadn't been sure if they should trust him, but her friend had been so confident, it had been agreed on. And it seemed like things had turned right on that area; everything had been recovered already, and Atarashi had no idea the balance had just been tipped, and not in her favor. The twelve-year-old deus sighed as she wondered what would be happening next, it seemed they would have to wait and see.

When Ryo had received the call from the girl he had come to truly admire, telling him she needed his help to recover some stolen records and equipment he had only had one question in his mind: why him? And yet, he had never so much as considered refusing to help, even when he was never really told why it seemed so important that the material stolen be recovered, and why they hadn't gotten the authorities in on it. He only thought that it was his opportunity to pay back the favor she had done to him when showing him the error of his ways (even if not even she knew she had done that) so she had gotten right into it. Getting to know Kobayashi Hatoko and work with her as well had just turned out to be an added bonus.

It had been easy, almost too easy, to find Atarashi Kyoko and convinced her he could help her, he just had told her he too had a record to set up straight with the owners of Piffle Princess; of course she had no idea that the 'setting straight' of that record would affect rather than help her. She had told him how she had records, materials and software related to a new and very secret project of Mihara Ichirou and his team; he then knew how serious the situation was. Ryo admired the scientist so much, just that would have been enough for him to help, even if he hadn't felt he owed something to the girl. So he'd gained Kyoko's and her accomplices' trust with some well place half-truths and white-lies; then that morning, when the trio had left their shared apartment for the Tournament he'd just gone in and gotten everything.

Ryo's attention was diverted from his own deep thoughts when from the corner of his eye he suddenly saw something, or more precisely someone, else someone who was running right in their direction, screaming something unintelligible while brandishing some unknown object in her hand. It wasn't until she reached past the stands and near the area of the stations that the twenty-year-old young man finally realized who the screaming someone was:

"Atarashi Kyoko…" He whispered, half-confused and half-unsure at what she pretended.

It became clear when she threw a couple of small cylindrical objects at the Seconds' stations.

"Beware!" Ryo yelled while he held Hatoko and pulled her away from the equipment.

The cylinders, grenades of some kind, caused the machines in the stations to short circuit, sending a rain of sparks all around, and initiating a small fire when some of the sparks landed on the jacket Oujirou's assistant had taken off and left on the back of her chair.

Every single motion stopped inside the stadium as everyone watched the half-crazed young woman in shock.

"Are you nuts?!" Hatoko finally yelled as she jumped on her feet. "What did you think you were doing?! You could have killed us!!!"

It was only Ryo's hands on her shoulders that stopped the violet-eyed young deus from throwing herself at the brunette and attacking her in anger.

On the other side of the Layer Ogata Masaharu had arrived from one of the hallways in a rush and immediately gone to make sure his girlfriend was alright. He'd nearly collapsed in a panic when seeing her not being able to get away from the station in time, and then when the jacket caught fire. He was glad to see that, aside from a serious scare, she seemed to be fine.

"What's the meaning of this?" Oujirou asked out loud, as he got on his feet while still on his place slightly over the Layer.

In the Layer itself, both Hikaru and Wizard had stopped their battle in mid-motion, Wizard could still be seen with his arms crossed in front of his face, as if protecting himself, while his legs were slightly bended, ready to jump; not far from him Hikaru help herself on the balls of one of her feet, with her other leg coiled and ready to deliver one mean kick, her hands poised at her sides, half in protection and half for balance.

Himemiya too had stopped moving her angel but still said nothing as she just watched the situation, wondering if this meant she would need to 'out herself' a bit earlier than planned.

"You cheated on me!" Atarashi screamed right then. "Both of you!"

"Huh?" Oujirou's usual serene mask fell off as he felt disbelief fill him, he honestly had no idea what the woman meant.

"We had a deal and you chickened out!" Atarashi yelled.

That made the rumors from the crowd begin.

"And you!" The crazy girl turned to the other deus. "You cheated your way through the tournament, through our fight. Miracle Rookie? More like Cheap Cheater!"

"I told you before it's not cheating if I'm just better than you." Himemiya told her simply. "Besides, if anyone here is a cheater, that would be you, wouldn't it? I mean, electric-whips, electromagnetic fields? The first were prohibited from use on Angelic Layer practically since the first tournament began, and the second…the one time a person even tried to use one in a competition, and one that wasn't even one of the official tournaments, he ended up being banned forever from ever participating in Angelic Layer and having to pay a fine so high I doubt very much he even wanted to after that."

All the public was silent again, what they were hearing, some were things they could have never imagined before, and they couldn't really understand some like, how exactly did the talented deus know any of that? How had the other girl gotten away with cheating in that tournament at all in the first place? What was really going on there?

"You're a liar." Atarashi hissed at the girl. "You're nothing more than a little conniving bi…"

"Enough!" Oujirou interrupted her. "Atarashi-san, I don't know what has made you believe you have any right to act like this, to even interrupt the final battle of the National Tournament in Angelic Layer. But I'll ask you to refrain in your vocabulary when talking to others in my presence, especially a lady like Himitsu Himemiya-san…"

"But that's just it, isn't it?" She asked in a cynical tone, looking at Oujirou. "That isn't even her name! Himitsu Himemiya doesn't exist, never has! Who the hell are you then?!"

Himemiya didn't answer, she just stayed right where she was, with her hands folded on her lap, watching Atarashi through her visor, under the cover of her hood.

"Atarashi-san, I think it would be best for everyone here if you were to leave now…" Oujirou began cautiously, he feared the crazy girl wasn't done making damage yet.

And that proved right when she pulled out some kind of detonator from her jacket.

"Iie!!" She screamed. "I won't be made a fool of!!!"

Atarashi hit the button on the detonator before anyone could so much as imagine what it was connected to. It turned out to be the Layer, or more precisely the device she herself had placed on it. Half of it blew up right away, throwing sparks and ruble everywhere, and making many people shriek in a mix of panic and confusion.

"Hikaru!!!" Himemiya called out loud as she got on her feet, gripping the railing of her place.

What happened next shocked all of those in the room so much it was enough to even calm those in panic, and it was just that the scene before her was one not even the most imaginative there could have ever considered possible:

Hikaru was flying, Angel wings sprouting from her back, and in her arms she held Wizard, as they moved slowly away from the explosion.

"You really are crazy, aren't you?" The cloaked deus finally spoke to Atarashi. "You just attacked several people here, destroyed a Layer, almost destroyed two Angels, and nearly hurt people in the public, as well as both Oujirou-kun and me!"

She was so wound up she didn't even notice the way she had said his name, but he did, and it confused him, what was going on?

"You cheating, lying b…" Atarashi began screaming at her again.

"Quiet!!!" The young deus spoke with a sudden authority that surprised everyone present.

Even Atarashi, she felt as if the other young woman's voice had just speared her to her spot; never before had she felt like that, frozen by just words; but then again there seemed to be an innate authority in the cloaked woman's voice she just couldn't explain.

"You were so sure you would get your way, that no one would be able to stop you, you couldn't handle it when I did." The woman began saying in a very serious tone. "Let me tell you one thing: we allowed you to cheat, don't even for one moment believe that you were so clever no one noticed, we did; but I wanted to beat you in your own game. Which is why you were allowed to get away with it; so I could stop you on the Layer." She sighed. "About me, well at least you're right on one detail, I'll give you that. It is true that Himitsu Himemiya doesn't exist." As she spoke she lowered her hood, unclasped her cloak, let it drop and then went to remove her headset, finally saying. "My true name is…Suzuhara Misaki."

* * *

Please don't tell me someone, anyone, didn't see that one comming. Anyway, the conclusion to this adventure is coming up in the next chapter. You can't miss it!


	6. The Truth of a Princess

**Chapter 6. The Truth of the Princess **

It was so quiet in the stadium one would probably have been able to hear a pin dropping. Since the moment the usually cloaked deus had called for silence no one in the room had dared to utter a single sound, they barely even breathed. Even if her mere order hadn't been enough, the shock at the revelation of her true identity probably had left more than one shocked still.

"I am Suzuhara Misaki." The young woman began. "The daughter of Shuu-san, Athena's deus, the one you call the Queen Goddess. And for the last five years I've also been dating your Prince of the Layer, Mihara Oujirou."

That made the whispers star all over again, though they stopped as soon as they saw the girl was about to speak again.

"Tell me one thing, Atarashi-san, did you honestly believe you would be able to get away with blackmailing Oujirou-kun and the rest of us?" She asked. "Did you really think no one would be able to stop you? That I would just stand there and do nothing?"

"You don't even exist!" Atarashi wailed.

"I'm standing right here." Misaki deadpanned, it was so unusual, seeing her so serious, but she knew the situation called for it. "But I guess you mean you didn't know I exist. And yeah, that was kinda the point. I've never liked public life, being followed by the press every waking hour, it was bad enough when Angelic Layer began and people knew me just as the daughter of one of its creators. Things seemed to calm down enough when the press realized I had no intention whatsoever of competing in the Layer. Then when Oujirou-kun and I began dating, I decided I didn't want people to know, I didn't want the press to harass me once again, to have the paparazzi all over me; I happen to like keeping my private life that way, private. It made going to school all the more easier. Only our family and closest friends knew that we were dating, and that was just fine with us."

At this point Misaki couldn't help but doubt, truth is that she had never actually asked Oujirou if he wanted to make their relationship public, she had just explained why she didn't want it and was happy when he agreed.

Oujirou, seemingly realizing what was going through her mind waited until she turned to look in his direction, smiled and nodded, confirming her own words, he was fine with them keeping their relationship a secret from the public, as he was also fine with her revealing everything in that very moment.

"If you're really who you say you are, there's no way you're a rookie." Atarashi's second, who had arrived just behind her, spoke right then.

"Why do I keep having to explain this?" Misaki asked rhetorically. "I had never before competed in Angelic Layer, had never battled other angels. Hai, I have Hikaru, have had her for as long as Oujirou-kun has had Wizard and even longer than okaa-san has had Athena."

"If you didn't fight in Angelic Layer, what did you want your angel for?" The same girl asked.

"Angelic Layer isn't just about the fighting." Misaki answered with a smile. "It's about caring for your angel, about trusting him or her to follow your will; about believing that, together, you can make all your dreams come true."

"That's just stupid childish idealism." Atarashi snarled.

"Maybe, but if I'm realistic or idealistic, it still doesn't change that you cheated in Angelic Layer." Misaki was suddenly very serious again. "You tried to destroy something my family and friends worked very hard and for a very long time to create; all the while threatening to bring down another project that wasn't even in the public domain yet! You were willing to bring down everything we have, everything we are, just to be called the 'Queen of Angelic Layer'; now that, I think, is truly childish and stupid. But even if you hadn't done all of that, there's one thing I still wouldn't be able to forgive, and that is that in your ridiculous attempts to get all that 'fame and glory' you nearly destroyed the person I love the most; that, I will never forgive you for."

Oujirou thought he couldn't be happier than he was in that moment, his beloved still loved him, she had done so much, gone through so many difficulties, just to help him it seemed. Yes, life was perfect.

"I just want you to understand that you won't get away with what you did." Misaki continued. "It's over, at least for you the tournament is over. Even with all our tricks, your cheating, you still couldn't win, and without them I doubt you would have gotten past the first eliminatory rounds in the regional."

"This isn't over just yet." Atarashi insisted, a maniacal grin appearing in her face suddenly. "I still have…"

"Absolutely nothing." Misaki interrupted her, and then signaled to where her friends stood.

Turning Atarashi could see Kobayashi Hatoko, another talented deus and the one who had been acting as 'Himemiya's' second; beside her stood one man she knew well; and then, as she noticed the box at his feet it dawned on her.

"Iiie!!!" she screamed. "You tricked me too!"

"I told you I had a record to set straight." Ryo explained as he shrugged. "You just never thought to ask me if that would favor or affect you."

Atarashi could almost see as all her plans fell to pieces around her. She had been defeated, even with everything she had done to ensure her own victory, she had been discovered, and the leverage she had had was gone, taken by one she believed hated those from Piffle Princess as much as her. Then, to make matters even worse she could see her other 'accomplice' being escorted by two security officers, it seemed she had been found too.

"How?" She asked out loud, though she wasn't really expecting an answer.

"I have access to the old records that belong to the deuses who have done something, anything against the rules in Angelic Layer." Misaki explained. "I found your name there, you had your own file. Seems that every time some 'tool' was invented to 'aid' in Angelic Layer you would get in and would use it until someone told you not to; sometimes you kept using it even then, until you were suspended and your offense was recorded. You had so many records like that, that you should have never been able to enter a Tournament; but you knew that, so one of your friends got a job in Piffle Princess as an assistant and waited until the right moment to enter the system and block your files, that way when you went to register yourself for the first part of the Tournament the woman in charge didn't get the warning that you were banned. A good move on your part, I must admit, but the truth is, we noticed that too. Let me introduce to you Fujimori Hiromi-san, whom your friend thought was too happy and oblivious to notice the things she pulled but actually was just allowing it under my instructions."

Hiromi couldn't help the almost predatory grin that appeared on her face; she had so wanted to wring the girl's neck since the first time she had tried altering her friend's records, but Misaki had told her to wait, to let her handle things. So Hiromi had waited, also unsure if that girl was the only one involved; after all, until recently she hadn't gotten come to the realization that the very same girl who had changed those records had also been the one to get the other two into the room with the top-secret material, it didn't seem possible, though apparently it was.

"Why would she follow your instructions?" Atarashi's friend asked. "Even if you're the daughter of Shuu-sama, what gives you the authority to order anyone around?"

Hatoko snorted out-loud, as if Misaki would ever willingly 'order anyone around'.

"Well, she just happens to be my assistant." The blue-eyed young woman pointed out with a playful grin. "Another thing I'm sure you didn't know is that I'm a programmer, I've been working for Piffle Princess for a few years now. Project Archangel was my idea." She seemed to ponder for a moment and added. "That's the project you stole the records of, in case you didn't know. And let me tell you that, even if you had gone ahead with your 'evil plan' and either destroyed the things or sold them to our competition, it would have managed nothing at all, since there's only one copy of the final part of the project, and that's in my possession. The only reason we worked so hard to get back what you had taken was, well, so we wouldn't leave any loose knots, so to speak. In the end what you were planning just wouldn't have worked anyway. So…so sorry, you loose, again."

Hatoko very nearly burst out laughing at the way Atarashi's and her friends' expressions seemed to change every fraction of second: nervousness, fear, anger, shock, panic, confusion, surprise, doubt, fury…again and again.

Truth is, Misaki was being unusually vindictive in that moment, but considering everything she and her friends had gone through the past few months it should have been expected.

"You do know I could press charges against you, not only for cheating and use of banned tools and devices in the Angelic Layer Tournament, but for Corporative Espionage?" The blue-eyed deus pointed out serenely.

That made all three girls gasp in shock and fear.

"I don't know." Misaki sighed, her shoulders dropping, she was tired, so tired of all this madness. "I guess I'll leave that up to okaa-san, Icchan-san and Oujirou-kun. I've already done what I set out to do. I leave your fate in their hands."

"Very well said, Misaki-chan!" They heard a voice called.

Everyone turned in the direction of the stadium's main entrance, where they could see a couple walking, he dressed in dark slacks, light-colored button up shirt and a lab-coat on top; her with a high-necked long-sleeved lilac blouse and a long white skirt: they were Mihara Ichirou and Suzuhara-Mihara Shuuko, the creators of Angelic Layer.

"Well, well, it seems you handled everything beautifully Misaki-chan." Ichirou declared with obvious satisfaction. "I almost have nothing left to do. Except remind you two" he turned to look at Oujirou. "That as interesting as all this drama was, the people are here to see Angelic Layer, and your fight is quite finished yet, is it?"

"But the Layer was destroyed?" It was the announcer who voiced what seemed to be in almost everyone's minds.

"How can they continue?" Ryo asked at the same time, thinking them crazy.

"That's the beauty of Angelic Layer." Shuuko said in a soft, sweet voice. "Realizing that, when you believe in your angel and yourself, everything is possible."

With a silent instruction from Icchan to Masaharu the floor opened and the destroyed Layer vanished, leaving just an open space in between the two deuses.

"Since everyone's already heard us talking about this, lets show them what we've been working on all this time." Icchan announced. "Lets show them what Project Archangel is about. Misaki-chan, would you do the honors."

"It'll be my pleasure." Misaki answered as she got ready.

The young woman put on a new headset, smaller than the usual one and wireless; then she carefully took the two angels into her hands and raised them; the crowd gasped as they saw a pair of white wings unfurl from Hikaru's back once again, it was until then that they realized the red robe on the pink-haired angel had fallen off when the wings had appeared for the first time, revealing a red-white-black bodysuit that went well with the boots and gloves.

"This is Archangel." Misaki announced with a proud smile.

When reaching a certain height Hikaru let go of Wizard, but before the other angel could crash against the ground, a pair of wings burst from his own back, leaving both angels flying in circles over the area that the Layer had previously occupied. Oujirou had gotten his own headset on already, having received it from Hiromi with a smile. He then turned to look at Misaki and smiled again.

"Lets finish this tournament now." Icchan called excitedly. "Allow us to show you what can be achieved when you truly believe all things are possible!"

"Right!" The announcer seemed to take this as his cue. "Angel fight!!!"

.---.

In the end neither Atarashi nor her two accomplices were prosecuted under the charge of Corporative Espionage, all of those involved thought the sentence would have been just too harsh; even Oujirou and Misaki couldn't help but see the three women as a bunch of fanatical little girls who had grown way too obsessed with something. So instead the three criminals had been declared on parole, were forced to go through many long hours of community service, were forever banned from anything related to Angelic Layer or Piffle Princess, and had a permanent note in their official records that made it rather hard for them to get a good job in the future.

Even then Misaki couldn't help but fear they might have been pushing it in the end, but Oujirou said she just was too nice; the crazy gals wouldn't have had the same compassion if they had gotten away with their plans.

Project Archangel was received with open arms by everyone. After they had seen the second part of the battle between Hikaru and Wizard, a battle guided by deuses using wireless headsets and with no Layer to limit their movements. It was just amazing.

It was true Project Archangel had been Misaki's idea, when seeing everything that could be done in the Layer, the most amazing things perhaps the wings that would appear on both Athena's and Hikaru's backs when their deuses willed it so. And the girl had then wondered if there was actually a limit on what could be done.

So they had all begun working on bypassing the limits, first have been the cables, bringing up the construction of the wireless headsets; though even now they were harder to use than the normal ones, as the deus needed to focus more on the moves than usual, and some deuses had trouble actually willing their angels to move when they couldn't believe it would happen. The wire seemed to be like their guarantee that what they were trying would work. It was a crutch they would have to try and break. Something they would begin working on pretty soon, as Piffle Princess was already beginning the massive production of these new headsets, they were to be used in all practice centers in the upcoming months and would be part of the official equipment for the tournaments the following year.

The next part had then been the Layer itself, the idea that the angels may be able to move outside of the Layer as well as they did inside it brought up a whole new world of possibilities. Because all along the hardest part of Angelic Layer had been the platforms, as they were hard to create, and also expensive, not many could get them, so people preferred to rent them for certain periods of time. If they could eliminate the need of the Layer, then anyone would be able to practice Angelic Layer, anywhere and at any time. Of course that idea required a lot of work, alterations to both the angels and the headsets, but the work was well under way already and would probably be ready for public use in a year or two.

Misaki was right, with Angelic Layer, everything was possible.

.---.

The next evening Oujirou arrived a bit early to his brother's house, he was there to pick up Misaki and take her to the party being held in one of the Piffle Princess building. Officially it was a party to celebrate the official presentation of the Archangel Project to the public, as well as the amazing end of that year's Angelic Layer Tournament; unofficially the party was also to celebrate Shuuko's and Icchan's seventh wedding anniversary the following week, Kobayashi Tamayo's pregnancy and…perhaps something more.

As soon as he had arrived he could see his brother's car wasn't in the driveway, which meant he had already left with Shuuko; yet, there was another, unknown car in front of the house, he thought it might belong to one of Misaki's friends. Oujirou, dressed in an elegant black tux with a white button-up shirt and a red carnation boutonnière approached the house's door while holding in his hands a bouquet formed by a dozen roses, mixing white and red; it was his attempt at subtly showing what he wished.

At his knock the door was opened by none other than Kobayashi Hatoko, dressed in a purple silk one-shouldered blouse, a long black-gray skirt that reached to her ankles and had a slit on one side and black strapped-heels; her hair was pulled up on an elegant bun with some stray bangs framing her face which had very little makeup on.

Behind Hatoko stood a man Oujirou remembered seeing passing before, slightly older than Misaki, with dark hair and hazel eyes, dressed in a sand-colored button-up shirt, dark-brown slacks and shoes and a brown long jacket; he silently handed Hatoko her own black coat as they reached the door.

"Ryo-san and I are leaving now Misaki-chan!" Hatoko called loudly in the direction of the stairs. "And Oujirou-san just arrived."

"Alright!" Misaki's voice could be heard from the second floor. "I'll see you there, Hatoko-chan, Ryo-san."

Apparently satisfied Hatoko allowed Ryo to help her into her coat at the same time he took out the keys of his own car.

"Ah," she said suddenly, as she turned to face Oujirou. "You better find a way to make up for all your stupid mistakes the past few months mister, and soon."

And without even waiting for the man to answer him she stepped out of the house. Ryo, too shocked to say anything at all, just followed her, rushing to open his car's door for her, then close it after her; soon the couple were on their way.

Oujirou stood frozen in the spot for a few seconds, he hadn't been expected that one. A voice coming from upstairs brought him out of his thoughts easily:

"I'll be right down Oujirou-kun!" It was Misaki's voice. "Why don't you make yourself comfortable meanwhile?"

He realized in that very moment, as he took a second to bask in the moment, how much he had missed just the sound of her voice; being without her the past months had been the worst kind of torture anyone could have ever come up with, and it was something he definitely didn't want to go through again, never again.

Less than five minutes later soft clanks on the wooden steps announced him that the love of his life was coming down, and when she finally appeared in his line of vision, he was frozen in place at what he saw. He couldn't help but think that in that very moment he could have died a very happy man; though he had known for quite some time now that his beloved was a very beautiful girl, in that moment he could only think she was actually an Extremely-Gorgeous Woman. In a strapless red silk dress that on the left side reached to her knee while on the right it fell past her mid-calf, a delicate silvery design on the inferior edge, then underneath a pearly white skirt that reached to the floor; silvery slippers were on her feet, around her neck a white-gold choker, that went along with the diamond pendants hanging from her ears; her hair was down, in soft thick curls, just like he had always liked; her make-up was as scarce and delicate as Hatoko's, just bringing out her natural beauty.

"Well?" She asked, twirling slowly in front of him.

"I have no words to describe how you look, or how you are making me feel at this very moment." Oujirou admitted in a hoarse voice.

Misaki blushed but smiled at the same time, delighted that he seemed to like it.

Without her knowing, Oujirou made up his mind in that very moment, before Misaki could give a single step more or say anything at all, he dropped to one knee right where he was, fishing out a black velvet box from the inner pocket of his tux and popping it open in front of her, revealing the most beautiful ring anyone had ever seen.

"Misaki, my love, I know that the last few months I've been the worst kind of man, and especially the worst kind of boyfriend." He began. "But if one thing became clear to me in this time, it was that I can't live without you, and I really don't want to. So I'm here, asking this, like I should have three months ago, before all this madness began. Will you my angel, my princess, the one and only love of my life, consent to make me the happiest man on the planet and become my wife?"

Misaki could barely hold back the tears that would have ruined her makeup for sure, and it was just that she felt so absolutely happy in that moment, and also…relieved, in a sense. When all the madness had begun she had come to fear they might never be together again, that even if her plan worked and they managed to thwart Atarashi's scheme it might already be too late for them to recover what they'd had. She'd never been happier to be wrong about something.

As he waited nervously for her answer Oujirou thought about how long he had pondered on the right moment to propose; he had briefly considered doing it on the Layer, right as their battle ended, but then decided that it was too public, Misaki preferred more private things. He had also entertained the idea of proposing during the party that night, but then as he had seen her standing before him, looking so beautiful it actually took his breath away, he just couldn't wait a single second longer.

"Hai…" She finally whispered in a soft yet very intense tone of voice. "I will be your wife. I'll be very happy to marry you, Oujirou-kun!"

A long, passionate kiss, sealed the declaration.

.---.

Hours later, most of the guests had left the party already, including the press, though the last had been harder once they had spied the simple but delicate diamond ring in Misaki's third finger of her left hand. It had been chaotic for a few minutes, with everyone wanting to take a look at the ring, to get some pictures from the newly engaged couple, to get some words from them: how long had they been dating? When had he proposed? When where they planning on marrying? Where would they be living? Would they both continue on Angelic Layer?

Actually, as Shuuko pointed out while helping the young couple get rid of some of the more annoying reporters, some of those questions had been answered by Misaki herself the day before; it was quite obvious the engagement was recent, otherwise people would have noticed the ring during the tournament. The last question was in fact the only one that really needed answering in that moment.

"No." Misaki said, to the surprise and sadness of many. "I don't plan on ever competing in Angelic Layer again. I love angels, I care for them a lot, and I don't really like fighting, which is why I hadn't entered a tournament before this year. Right now I plan on concentrating on this new step in my life, my future marriage to Oujirou-kun and the career I've already chosen to pursue as a dancing teacher; of course I will continue working on Archangel, and I really hope everyone will love this new side of Angelic Layer as much as I do, as we all do. Still, to answer your question, no, I don't really think I'll ever fight on the Layer again." Then under her breath, and out of reach of the mikes she added. "Though then again I had promised myself I wouldn't ever be doing it, yet I did so…who knows?"

Oujirou, who had been close enough to her to hear could only chuckle to himself.

Even with that speech, nothing seemed to be able to stop people from calling her the Angel-Princess, especially when they made reference to her relation with the 'Queen Goddess' or her engagement to the 'Prince of the Layer'. It seemed like one of Misaki's worst fears had come to pass: she was a public figure. Though when balanced against all the great things that seemed to be happening in her life, she decided she didn't mind that much.

As the night began winding down Tamayo and Kotarou approached the engaged couple, they were saying their goodbyes when suddenly something seemed to occur to the young blonde pregnant woman:

"Why Himitsu Himemiya?" Tamayo asked, truly intrigued. "I mean, I know you needed some kind of alias since you couldn't exactly register into the tournament under the name Suzuhara Misaki, as that would have ruined the 'discreet approach' you were aiming for. But why precisely that name?"

Misaki blushed brightly as she hid her face behind Oujirou's shoulder, mumbled something under her breath but no one, not even her fiancé, was really able to make out what it was she was saying exactly.

"What?" They all asked at the same time.

"That's what Oujirou-kun used to call me." Misaki confessed, still half-hidden behind the man in question. "When we went on our dates. He said that if he was a prince, then I ought to be a princess, a princess no one knew even existed, a secret princess…"

"Himitsu Himemiya…" Kotarou whispered, marveled.

It truly was a stroke of genius in their opinion; she had almost openly advertized exactly who she was, and no one had really noticed.

Hatoko had been right when saying that Himitsu Himemiya was quite an obvious name, though only when one knew what they were looking for.

"Would my princess grant me the honor of this dance?" Oujirou asked in a very gentlemanly manner as he extended his hand to his fiancée.

A new song had just begun, a soft waltz.

"Alright, the last one." Misaki agreed as he took his hand with a smile.

"The last one, why?" He asked even as he began twirling her across the dance-floor. "I happen to believe this will instead be the first of many, many dances to come."

Understanding what he was implying Misaki couldn't help but blush, for the umpteenth time that evening, and at the same time smile her most beautiful smile yet.

"Many more dances indeed." She agreed.

And as the young couple enjoyed themselves thoroughly, dancing all around the floor, in the corner of the room, on a small table, two small figures stood, two angels, their bodies upright, figures poised, as if they were about to begin dancing as well, Hikaru and Wizard bore witness to the great love their deuses shared for each other, a love that had finally been allowed to fly free, leaving behind the trials, the pains, the secrets, shining with the greatest love ever known: the love of a Prince of the Layer and his Angel Princess…

* * *

It's done! Finished! And I hope you people like it. I enjoyed greatly writing it, despite the time it's taken me to update, I actually had all this written an checked in one week, the week previous to my uploading the first chapter. That's how inspired I was with this work.

Now for the questions that I'm sure must now be running through your minds:

_Why an AU?_ I'm actually not sure what to say to this. I had read Angelic Layer, the manga, before, three years or so ago; I felt there was something missing, so I got the ánime and watched it, I actually liked it more than the manga, especially concerning the explanation behind Shuuko's absence from home, and the relationships (or at least suggestions of relationships) between some people like Shuuko and Icchan, Misaki and Oujirou, Tamayo and Kotarou, Hiromi and Masahiro (I happen to like those couples more than the ones used in the manga, sorry for those who support others). This story began with the thought of Misaki and Oujirou dating and no one knowing, I knew that that would need for them to be older, and that was easy, but then I thought the couple would be more interesting if only one of them was a known deus. I began wondering how I could make it so that one of them wouldn't be a deus at the beggining, but still get involved with things eventually, and then the back story mentioned in "Will of a Deus" came to me. I hope you liked it. I thought it interesting how such a basic variation, like Misaki joining her mother and aunt in Tokyo when she's still a child could change things so radically, and yet leave the core of it (the relationships, Angelic Layer, the talent) intact.

_Why I began the story at the point where I did?_ Honestly? 'Cause I'm no good at writing battles, or at least, not the kind of battles needed for this fic, and I really wanted to get in on the romantic and slightly-angsty stuff (what can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic in and out). Also, I imagined Himemiya's tournament to be more or less like the one Misaki had in the original series, I only handled the battle with Arisu, more or less, in case people haven't read the manga, and because I thought she was a good character to have in that position.

_Why I used Kyoko as the antagonist?_ Ever since I first saw Queen's attire I imagined it as something the villain of a story would wear, and then Kyoko's attitude matched perfectly. I know that in the ánime Kyoko wasn't really evil, but here I'm working with a Kyoko that didn't meet and befriend Misaki years prior, that didn't have someone tell her the things that she needed to hear to understand why she needed to change. Like you saw with Ryo, he did get to meet Misaki, even if the circumstances were considerably different, and he was a good ally.

_About Ryo and Hatoko?_ I don't know if anyone even noticed the hints, but in case you did. I don't even know myself what happenes there. I never planned for this two to get together. I got Hatoko as Misaki's best friend who's a deus, because I wanted to keep most of the relationship they have in both the manga and the ánime, and just strenghten it, taking in consideration that more time has passed since they know each other; then Roy fit in when I needed someone to be sort of an 'insider' with Atarashi's team. And as the story progressed, the two just kind of fell in together, they have quite a few things in common, and many of them revolve around or oung Angel Princess. So, in the end, it's up to you, ou can either see them as very good friends (yeah, he escorted her to a party, that doesn't necessarily mean they're dating) or if you prefer, you can think of them as a couple.

_About the name Himitsu Himemiya?_ Well, ou already read the explanation for that name, I wanted to use a name people wouldn't easily connect to Misaki, at least not in the very beggining, but that, in the very core, was very connected to her. That's also why did is the title of the fic, because it was all about her being the Secret Princess.

_Proyect Archangel?_ I needed something very good for Atarashi to be holding over Oujirou; and in AL they never really say there is a limit to what can be done, so I worked with that, trying to keep it credible, at least as far as cannon is concerned.

And finally, perhaps the most important question of all...

_Who won the tournament?_ Who knows? I don't, honestly. I had very good reasons for each of them to win, and to loose, and in the end I just couldn't decide on one. I mean, if Misaki has gotten that far, she sure has the strength to defeat Oujirou too, she's been in Angelic Layer as long as he, and has great talent, and well, she won in cannon; on the other hand Oujirou has been the Prince of the Layer for years, he's been a deus far longer than Misaki has, has had experience with Angels for a very long time as well, and especially, he knows Misaki's fighting style which could prove to be an asset when fighting against her. So, very good reasons for both of them to win, I could also have made them have a tie, but in the end decided it was better if I just left it up to the imagination. Whoeer you want to win is fine with me.

So, that's it, I hope there are no questions left unanswered, and that people enjoy my work.

See ya in the next fic!


End file.
